RUSCHA, Ed - Bücher und Bilder / Books and Paintings

Background information, statement of the artist, Ed RUSCHA

"Words are pattern-like, and in their horizontality they answer my investigation into landscape ... they are almost not words--they are objects that become words." (© Ed RUSCHA, 1989)
"Ed RUSCHA, born in 1937, draws his aesthetic inspiration from mass media and films as well as the urban features of Los Angeles, stylistically painting corporate labels, gas stations and department stores, as well as everyday objects, landscapes, logos, slogans or single words. Ed RUSCHA explores the question of how specific associations can be evoked by typography, overall form and color. Next to the paintings with industrial buildings or words are his books. The artist himself has been producing, relocating and distributing the narrow volumes since the 1960s, which in addition to titles and locations usually contain only a series of black-and-white photos. Ed RUSCHA's central theme is the relationship between word and image." (© Museum Brandhorst)
"The combination of pictorial motifs and words or sentences has long been a special feature of Ed RUSCHA's paintings. This attraction to combinations of word and image has naturally disposed Ed RUSCHA toward the book as an art form, and as both an object and subject in his paintings.

Content

This volume commemorates a bequest of paintings, photographs and books by Ruscha to the Museum Brandhorst in Munich, complementing their existing works. It offers a representative selection of books published by Ruscha, ranging from the legendary Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1962) to On the Road (2009)--a new edition, designed and illustrated by Ruscha, of Jack Kerouac's 1957 novel.

About the American photo artist, Ed RUSCHA

Photo books by and on the work of Ed RUSCHA