Book excerpt: Illustrated by over 50 of Edward Hopper's most powerful evocations of New York, Avis Berman's essay explores how Hopper and his work illuminate each other by analyzing what his New York is - and is not. Ever the contrarian, he offers an alternative to what other American artists seized on - the new, the gigantic, the technologically exciting. Hopper stayed away from tourist attractions or landmarks of the city's glamorous skyline. His preference for nondescript vernacular buildings is emblematic of the larger Hopper paradox: he makes emptiness full, silence articulate, banality intense, plainness mysterious, and tawdriness noble.