Andrea Zittel is a sculptor whose works reinvent everyday living spaces and objects, minimalizing life to its essentials to increase behavioral efficiency and functionality. Zittel, having left Brooklyn in 1999, relocated her personal life and her artistic corporate identity “A-Z” to Joshua Tree, thereby creating A-Z West: a space that fuses her home, studio, and an experimental “institute of investigative living.” Zittel built A-Z West on land that the government had provided after reinstituting the Homestead Act post-World War II, providing five-acre lots for free to individuals interested in constructing minimal structures on the arid land. A-Z West now has expanded to include 35 acres encompassing the original homestead in Zittel’s attempts to isolate A-Z West from nearby development.

The Wagon Station Encampment, as a main component of A-Z West, attracts various individuals who feel an affinity with Zittel’s mission in the high desert. The Encampment consists of 12 Wagon Stations, steel and aluminum sleeping pods, scattered among boulders.

Image: The Wagon Station Encampment at A-Z West, Andrea Zittel, photo by Lance Brewer.