Cotton Puffs, Q-tips, Smoke and Mirrors

Book excerpt: "Ed Ruscha's diverse and highly influential work of the past four decades resists easy categorization. His straightforward depiction of prosaic subjects taken from American popular culture has earned him a reputation as a Pop artist, while his interest in language and typography has aligned him with certain trends in Conceptual art. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1937 and raised in Oklahoma, Ruscha moved in 1956 to Los Angeles, where he studied fine and graphic arts at Chouinard (now CalArts). This book, published to accompany the first museum retrpprestive of Ruscha's original works on paper, highlights over two hundred drawings whose subjects range from the depiction of vernacular objects, trademarks, gas stations, and apartment buildings to renderings of words and phrases in countless stylistic variations. His unusual media, including fruit and vegetable juices, gunpowder, blood, and tobacco juice, further attest to the invention and ingenuity of this major American artist." - inside back cover.