Compendium / chronology documenting both the artists'' books of Edward Ruscha, and the books inspired by, or aping, Ruscha''s artist''s books. Edited by Jeff Brouws, Wendy Burton and Hermann Zschiegner. Text by Phil Taylor, with and essay by Mark Rawlinson. Documents artists'' books by Jeff Brouws, Wendy Burton, Hermann Zschiegner, Edward Ruscha, Noriko Ambe, Edgar Arceneaux, Eric Baskauskas, Doro Boehme, Denise Scott Brown, Dan Colen, Julie Cook, Jennifer Dalton, Bill Daniel, Jen Denike, Eric Doeringer, Stan Douglas, Harlan Erskine, Kota Ezawa, Robbert Flick, Jan Freuchen, Anne-Valérie Gasc, Thomas Galler, Marcella Hackbardt, Dejan Habicht, Charles Andrew Hadfield, Mishka Henner, Kai-Olaf Hesse, Taro Hirano, Dominik Hruza, Steven Izenour, Henning Kappenberg, Joachim Koester, Tanja Lazetic, Gabriel Lester, Jonathan Lewis, Jochen Manz, Michael Maranda, Daniel Mellis, Jerry McMillan, Martin Möll, Jonathan Monk, Simon Morris, Toby Mussman, Maurizio Nannucci, Luke Batten, Jonathan Sadler, John O''Brian, Michalis Pichler, Tadej Pogacar, Susan Porteous, Clara Prioux, Robert Pufleb, John Rafman, Achim Riechers, David Russ, Mark Ruwedel, Tom Sachs, Joachim Schmid, Jean-Frédéric Schnyder, Yann Sérandour, Travis Shaffer, Tom Sowden, Kim Stringfellow, Derek Stroup, Derek Sullivan, Chris Svensson, Eric Tabuchi, John Tremblay, Marc Valesella, Louisa Van Leer, Robert Venturi, Reinhard Voigt, Henry Wessel, Keith Wilson, Charles Woodard, Mark Wyse and additional artists.
"In the 1960s and 1970s, the artist Ed Ruscha created a series of small photo-conceptual artist''s books, among them Twentysix Gas Stations, Various Small Fires, Every Building on the Sunset Strip, Thirtyfour Parking Lots, Real Estate Opportunities, and A Few Palm Trees. Featuring mundane subjects photographed prosaically, with idiosyncratically deadpan titles, these ''small books'' were sought after, collected, and loved by Ruscha''s fans and fellow artists. Over the past thirty years, close to 100 other small books that appropriated or paid homage to Ruscha''s have appeared throughout the world. This book collects ninety-one of these projects, showcasing the cover and sample layouts from each along with a description of the work. It also includes selections from Ruscha''s books and an appendix listing all known Ruscha book tributes. These small books revisit, imitate, honor, and parody Ruscha in form, content, and title. Some rephotograph his subjects: Thirtyfour Parking Lots, Forty Years Later. Some offer a humorous variation: Various Unbaked Cookies (which concludes, as did Ruscha''s Various Small Fires, with a glass of milk), Twentynine Palms (twenty-nine photographs of palm-readers'' signs). Some say something different: None of the Buildings on Sunset Strip. Some reach for a connection with Ruscha himself: 17 Parked Cars in Various Parking Lots Along Pacific Coast Highway Between My House and Ed Ruscha''s." -- publisher''s statement. With the publication of this book the meme is now officially dead.
