石墙、水泥墙、铁网墙：我们住在一个到处都是墙的世界里。墙划记出神圣的地方也体现了尘世的力量。墙维持了和平也带来战争。墙强迫了分离却也创造了统一。从国土、城市到自己的划地，墙定义也剖析了我们的生活。对Thomas Oles来说，现在是时候扩大自己想法，了解墙的用途且必要性了。
 
在《墙》一书中，Oles说明了我们的思想和政治是如何被景观中的分隔形塑出来的，以及我们又是如何塑造这些分隔。他追溯回一长串历史上与史前标记与制作这些界线的方式与意义，并说到近百年来，这些作法已经渐渐不再被使用。他认为，从我们周边的景观中就能知道，人们早已被劣质材料的墙与心里的冷酷之墙拆的四分五裂。不过Oles表示，直到今天，每道墙仍然能是一个开口、一座舞台，景观中这个重要的地方是人们展现自己及确定彼此义务之处。Oles在让人意犹未尽的后记中，给了读者一个充满生命力、意义及正确的社会之墙──一道会让读者对未来的分隔之墙变得更有希望的墙。
 
好评
“Walls is a wide-ranging, cogent, and penetrating analysis of walls and boundaries. There are very few books on walls of any sort and none with this sophistication. It is a pleasure to find an interdisciplinary mind at work in the center of the discipline of landscape architecture.”-John Stilgoe Harvard University
 
“This insightful book unfolds a liminal poem by Robert Frost into a penetrating study of one of the most critical landscape phenomena of our time, the wall. This is a born classic concerned with the problem presented by the wall for the political, the cultural, and the designed landscape. The idea that the wall, once recovered, can not only enclose, but also create an opening into the world is both surprising and important.”- Kenneth Olwig, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
 
“What would it be like to dwell in a world of walls—a world where everything of consequence goes on in, on, along and through them rather than on the inside or on the outside? In this comprehensive cultural history of walls, fences, and hedges, from the first walled settlements of prehistory to futuristic scenarios for international borders, Thomas Oles shows that though such a world may seem strange to us, it is in fact the one we have always inhabited. This book reconstructs the wall where it belongs, no longer on the edge but at the center of human lived experience, political machination, and ethical concern. Cultural historians, human geographers, and landscape architects should prepare to have their worldviews turned inside out! ”- Timothy Ingold, University of Aberdeen
 
“In this engrossing ethical study, landscape architect Oles ponders walls and their potential for oppression or human exchange. Drawing on rich historical examples such as Britain's economically and ecologically valuable hedgerows, Oles offers an ethics test for proposed barriers that questions whether they support commonalities or embed differences.”-Nature
 
“Brilliant.”-First Things
 
关于作者
Thomas Oles是爱丁堡大学的景观设计讲师。他在荷兰、英国与美国等地教授景观设计，同时也有在这些地方帮人做景观设计。他是《Go with Me: 50 Steps to Landscape Thinking》一书的作者。