A-Z West

A-Z West is an artwork located on over seventy acres in the California high desert near Joshua Tree National Park. Since its’ inception, A-Z West has functioned as an ever-evolving testing grounds for living in which spaces, objects, and acts of living all intertwine into a single ongoing investigation into what it means to exist and participate in our culture today. “How to live?” and “What gives life meaning?” are core questions of Zittel’s personal life and artistic practice. Addressing these questions has entailed exploring complex relationships between our need for freedom, security, autonomy, authority, and control, observing how structure and limitations have the capacity to generate feelings of freedom beyond open-ended choices.

Works and projects at A-Z West include: Zittel’s home/testing grounds, the Wagon Station Encampment, Regenerating Field, shipping container compound, A-Z West studio and weaving studio, A-Z West satellite cabins, the Planar Pavilions, a ten-acre parcel for High Desert Test Sites projects, and several adjacent parcels slated for future projects.

If you would like to visit, A-Z West hosts monthly tours as a fundraiser for High Desert Test Sites. Due to our busy studio schedule individual visits are not possible. Specially scheduled tours can sometimes be organized for groups of 12 or more. We also offer week-long stays in the Experimental Living Cabins, a satellite location 40 miles east of Joshua Tree. To find out more about visiting A-Z West, please email azwest@zittel.org.
Please note, because A-Z West is a private residence we ask the public to respect the designated ways to visit. Visitors may not show up on A-Z West grounds without an appointment under any circumstance.