ed ruscha sixteen artist books a private collection

1 C O L L E C T O R S F O L I O + 1 ( 2 1 2 ) 3 2 6 9 5 5 1 - I N F O @ C O L L E C T O R S F O L I O . C O M 1

ED RUSCHASIXTEEN ARTIST BOOKSA Private Collection

COLLECTORSFOLIO


The photography by itself doesn’t mean anything to me: it’s the gas station, that’s the important thing.

ED RUSCHASIXTEEN ARTIST BOOKSA Private Collection

COLLECTORSFOLIO

P +1 (212) 326 - 9551 F +1 (212) 355 - 4403 [email protected]

© 2013 COLLECTORSFOLIO1050 SECOND AVENUE, GALLERY 90NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10022DESIGNED BY PHILLIP DMOCHOWSKI


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Twentysix Gasoline StationsVarious Small Fires and Milk

Some Los Angeles ApartmentsEvery Building on the Sunset Strip

Royal Road TestThirtyfour Parking Lots in Los Angeles

Nine Swimming Pools and a Broken GlassBusiness Cards

CrackersBabycakes with Weights

Real Estate OpportunitiesA Few Palm Trees

RecordsDutch Details

Colored PeopleHard Light

A complete collection of Ruscha’s artist books, all first editions, most signed or inscribed.

$125,000


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Twentysix Gasoline StationsAlhambra, CA: National Excelsior Press, 1963.

FIRST EDITION, limited to 400 hand-numbered copies, the entire edition (this is #355). Signed by Ruscha on dedication page.

Octavo. Illustrated throughout with black-and-white photographs; printed wrappers; glassine jacket, as issued; toned, with light chipping to top edge.

1

“It is perhaps unfair to write a review of a book which, by now, is probably completely unavailable. But the book is so curious, and so doomed to oblivion, that there is an obligation, of sorts, to document its existence, record its having been there.”

–Philip Leider, Artforum in September 1963.


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Various Small Fires and MilkHollywood: Anderson, Ritchie and Simon, 1964.

FIRST EDITION, limited to 400 copies the entire editon. Signed by Ruscha on first free endpaper.

Octavo. Illustrated throughout with black-and-white photographs; printed wrappers; glassine jacket, as issued; edges lightly toned.

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“I want absolutely neutral material. My pictures are not that interesting, nor the subject matter. They are simply a collection of ‘facts’; my book is more like a collection of ‘readymades.”


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Some Los Angeles ApartmentsLos Angeles: [Self-published], 1965.

FIRST EDITION; 1/700 copies, the entire edition. Signed by Ruscha on first free endpaper.

Octavo. Illustrated throughout with black-and-white photographs; distributor’s stamp at bottom of title page; printed wrappers; glassine jacket, as issued. Lightly toned.

3

“Superficiality can be profound and funny and worth living for. I mean, everything’s ephemeral when you look at it in its proper focus. It just happens more quickly in L.A.”


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Every Building on the Sunset StripLos Angeles: [Self-published], 1966.

FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, with the “Jaguar” building printed on the final flap. Signed by Ruscha on top edge of mylar case.

Octavo; accordion-style. Illustrated throughout with black-and-white photographs; printed wrappers; slight sunning to spine; in silver mylar slipcase, as issued; very minor shelf wear to mylar.

4

“All I was after was that store-front plane.... It’s like a Western town in a way. A store-front plane of a Western town is just paper, and everything behind it is just nothing.”


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Royal Road Test. With Mason Williams and Patrick Blackwell. Los Angeles: [Self-published], 1967.

FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE. A presentation copy, inscribed at time of publication on first free endpaper to Betty Gold:

For Betty Gold – / Best Wishes – / Ed Ruscha / 1967.

Royal Road Test documents the throwing of a Royal typewriter from a 1963 Buick Le Sabre.

Octavo. Illustrated throughout with black-and-white photographs; light sunning to edges; spiral bound; printed sti! wrappers, tanned on versos; a few light smudges to wrappers.

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“It was too directly bound to its own anguish to be anything other than a cry of negation; carrying within itself the seeds of its own destruction.”

–Mason Williams, from the preface to Royal Road Test


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Thirtyfour Parking Lots in Los AngelesLos Angeles: [Self-published], 1967.

FIRST PRINTING, one of 2413 copies. A presentation copy, inscribed by Ruscha at time of publication on first free endpaper:

To Betty and Phil with love, / Ed Ruscha.

Quarto. Illustrated throughout with black-and-white photographs; sheet of five printed peel-o! stickers loosely held at first free endpaper; printed wrappers; spine and edges sunned; light marks on rear wrapper.

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“I remember meeting an old man who said, ‘God, this place used to be a paradise in 1942’. I’ll never forget that. I knew exactly what he meant.”


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Nine Swimming Pools and a Broken GlassLos Angeles: [Self-published], 1968.

FIRST EDITION, limited printing of 2,400 copies.

Octavo. Illustrated throughout with color photographs; printed wrappers; original glassine jacket. Edges and spine lightly sunned, trivial chipping and wear to top edge.

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“It’s information age art. I’m not a seafaring guy.”


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Business Cards. With Billy Al Bengston.Hollywood: Heavy Industries Publications, 1968.

FIRST EDITION, one of only 1,000 copies. A presentation copy, doubly inscribed to Betty Gold by both authors on front wrapper at time of publication:

Betty / Billy, and Love to / Betty / Ed Roo.

Ruscha and Billy Al Bengston designed business cards which they then exchanged at a dinner party. This book documents the project.

Slim quarto. Illustrated throughout with black-and-white photographs; two printed cards stapled to recto of last free endpaper; bound with knotted leather strip; faux woodgrain color cardstock wrappers with black-and-white photograph a"xed with corners; date stamped in red.

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Crackers


CrackersHollywood: Heavy Industry Publications, 1969.

FIRST EDITION; one of 5000 copies, the entire edition.

Quarto. Illustrated throughout with black-and-white photographs; plain brown wrappers; printed white dust-jacket.

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“One of the weakest things I’ve ever done.”


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Babycakes with Weights.


Babycakes with WeightsLos Angeles: [Self-published], 1970.

FIRST EDITION. Signed by Ruscha on first free endpaper.

Octavo. Illustrated throughout with black-and-white photographs; pink ribbon binding; light blue paper wrappers with raised textural type for title.

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Real Estate OpportunitiesLos Angeles: [Self-published], 1970.

FIRST EDITION; one of 4,000 copies, the entire edition.

Octavo. Illustrated throughout with black-and-white photographs; printed wrappers; glassine jacket; spine lightly sunned, tiny chips at extremities.

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“It’s a playground, is all it is. Photography’s just a playground for me. I’m not a photographer at all.”


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A Few Palm TreesHollywood: Heavy Industry Publications, 1971.

FIRST EDITION; one of 3,900 copies, the entire edition. Signed by Ruscha on first free endpaper.

Octavo. Illustrated throughout with black-and-white photographs; black wrappers; small chip to right edge of front wrapper.

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“Camera facing west on all photos.”


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RecordsHollywood: Heavy Industry Publications, 1971.

FIRST EDITION. Photographs of 30 LPs from Ruscha’s personal collection.

Octavo. Illustrated throughout with black-and-white photographs; original printed wrappers.

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“I am not trying to create a precious limited edition book, but a mass-produced product of high order.”


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Dutch DetailsNetherlands: Octopus Foundation, 1971.

FIRST EDITION, one of 3,000 copies. Text in Dutch and English. Signed by Ruscha on verso of first fold-out spread.

Extremely rare. Most copies were destroyed. Oblong folio; ten fold-out pages; distributor’s printed sticker at bottom of title page; printed white cardstock wrappers.

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“When I came over on the plane the pilot said that he did not know what the weather was like in Amsterdam, but he’d let us know the details very soon. And that just clicked in my mind, this word details, and so I let that be something to guide me on this project and then I immediately thought: Dutch Details.”


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Colored PeopleLos Angeles: [Self-published], 1972.

FIRST EDITION. Fifteen color images of cacti, placed one per page, with multiple blank pages following.

Octavo. Illustrated throughout with color photographs; printed yellow wrappers.

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“What new techniques are required to document new forms? We should aim to dead-pan the material so that it speaks for itself. Ruscha has pioneered this treatment in his monographs... It is a way to avoid being upstaged by our own subject matter.”

–Denise Scott Brown


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Hard Light. With Lawrence Weiner.Los Angeles: [Self-published], 1978.

FIRST EDITION.

Octavo. Illustrated throughout with color photographs; printed yellow wrappers.

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“The idea was to keep it as free-flowing, as unserious, as possible. Collaborations have always had the lightest attitude; you would think that it would call for serious planning - not at all.”

ed ruscha sixteen artist books a private collection

Documents

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artist books4 c o

artist books6 c o

artist books8 c o

phillip dmochowski2

entire edition

new york

wrappers glassine jacket