Inspired in part by the “sound of the number ‘26,’” Ruscha gathered twenty-six images of gasoline stations to populate his first artist’s book. He shot the photographs on the road between Los Angeles and Oklahoma City and captioned them plainly, lending the book a “factual kind of army-navy data look.” When the Library of Congress declined this perplexing publication in 1964, Ruscha took out an ad in Artforum magazine proudly announcing its rejection. The artist continued to catalogue everyday subjects—small fires, swimming pools, parking lots—in subsequent books, while a service station in Amarillo, Texas, became a recurring motif in his work across media.

Gallery label from

ED RUSCHA / NOW THEN, September 10, 2023 – January 13, 2024

Medium Artist's book, offset printed
Dimensions page (each): 7 1/16 × 5 3/8" (17.9 × 13.7 cm); overall (closed): 7 1/16 × 5 9/16 × 3/16" (17.9 × 14.1 × 0.5 cm)
Publisher Edward Ruscha
Printer The Cunningham Press, Alhambra, CA
Edition 3,000
Credit Partial gift of the Daled Collection and partial purchase through the generosity of Maja Oeri and Hans Bodenmann, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, Agnes Gund, Marlene Hess and James D. Zirin, Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis, and Jerry I. Speyer and Katherine G. Farley
Object number 706.2011
Department Drawings and Prints

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Edward Ruscha

Edward Ruscha

American, born 1937 254 works online

Once, when asked about the abundance of text in his work, Ed Ruscha explained, “I just happened to paint words like someone else paints flowers.

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