Blank Book

<p>Ed Ruscha is credited with inventing the idiom of the quickly printed artist’s book when he published <em>Twentysix Gasoline Stations</em> in 1963. Conceived as a solo project that he conceptualized, designed, and published, it afforded him the chance to collect focused sequences of images that have since become iconic chronicles of the American vernacular.</p> <p>As Ruscha has explained, “If there is any facet of my work that I feel was kissed by angels, I’d say it was my books. My other work is definitely tied to a tradition, but I’ve never followed any tradition in my books. The books are a neuter gender, and that’s what I like about them. That’s why I feel so free when I do them. They’re the easiest things to do, and sometimes the best. I like the idea of spending $2,000 on something that’s totally frivolous and spontaneous. When I start on one of these books, I get to be the impresario of the thing, I get to be majordomo. I get to be creator and total proprietor of the whole works, and I like that. It’s nice. And I’m not biting my nails over whether the book is going to hit the charts or not.”</p> <p>Drawing has also been central to Ruscha’s work. Moreover, his dedication to craftsmanship regardless of medium is legendary. <em>Blank Book</em> refers to but does not copy a sequence of photographs that he made of his hand holding his first book (see <em>Hand Showing Book Cover</em> <a href=https://www.artic.edu/artworks/202895/hand-showing-book-cover> (2011.60)</a>, for example). This drawing differs from the photographs in many ways. Ruscha depicted the book blank, without lettering, rendering the sheet in graphite with a wide range of values to convey the object faithfully. And yet both the lighting and the space are impossible, which serves to underscore the monumentality of the book as a form, despite its modest size. In the drawing, Ruscha eliminated the photographic content and turned the book into an object without a specific meaning yet rich with enough allusions to suggest an object of devotion, such as a Bible.</p>