Burning Small Fires
Bruce Nauman
1968
Burning Small Fires
Burning Small Fires
Burning Small Fires
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Bruce Nauman and Ed Ruscha share profound conceptual affinities. In her profile of Nauman for Artforum (Summer 1986), Coosje van Bruggen recounts how, shortly after abandoning painting himself, Nauman encountered Ruscha’s work for the first ...
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Burning Small Fires
Bruce Nauman
1968
San Francisco: Self-published
Single folded sheet (93 × 127 cm unfolded)
32 × 24.5 cm

Bruce Nauman and Ed Ruscha share profound conceptual affinities. In her profile of Nauman for Artforum (Summer 1986), Coosje van Bruggen recounts how, shortly after abandoning painting himself, Nauman encountered Ruscha’s work for the first time and was excited by the possibilities it opened up. Works such as Damage (1964), and Burning Gas Station (1966) struck him as being as much about thought and perception as about painting itself.


 


In 1968, Nauman produced the artist’s book Burning Small Fires, featuring fifteen photographs of himself burning a copy of Ruscha’s 1964 edition of Various Small Fires and Milk. Like Ruscha’s book, which contains fifteen images of small fires, Nauman’s work comprises fifteen photographs; one, larger than the others, reveals his hand, extending the homage from the photographic into the gestural and performative.


 


As art historian Taylor Walsh has noted, while Ruscha treated burning as meaningless, Nauman’s act reintroduced something of the ritualistic power that fire had acquired amid the era’s countercultural protests. Burning Small Fires thus resonates with a year marked by mounting opposition to the Vietnam War and widespread political and social unrest.


 


There is no record of the two artists discussing the book, and Nauman was characteristically volatile when questioned about it, leaving the boundary between homage and iconoclasm deliberately fluid. Ruscha, for his part, often joked about the fate of his inexpensive artist’s books, confessing to A. D. Coleman that his publications often "end up in the trash" (The New York Times, August 27, 1972). Nauman’s gesture can therefore be read as both an irreverent tribute to Ruscha and a literal enactment of the precarious status of the artist’s book as object.


 


Nauman’s poster-book was exhibited in 2022 as part of Burning Matter at Studio 454 in Venice, alongside works by Ed Ruscha, Jonathan Monk, Tiane Doan na Champassak, and other artists exploring fire as both image and material.

San Francisco: Self-published
Single folded sheet (93 × 127 cm unfolded)
32 × 24.5 cm

Bruce Nauman and Ed Ruscha share profound conceptual affinities. In her profile of Nauman for Artforum (Summer 1986), Coosje van Bruggen recounts how, shortly after abandoning painting himself, Nauman encountered Ruscha’s work for the first time and was excited by the possibilities it opened up. Works such as Damage (1964), and Burning Gas Station (1966) struck him as being as much about thought and perception as about painting itself.

 

In 1968, Nauman produced the artist’s book Burning Small Fires, featuring fifteen photographs of himself burning a copy of Ruscha’s 1964 edition of Various Small Fires and Milk. Like Ruscha’s book, which contains fifteen images of small fires, Nauman’s work comprises fifteen photographs; one, larger than the others, reveals his hand, extending the homage from the photographic into the gestural and performative.

 

As art historian Taylor Walsh has noted, while Ruscha treated burning as meaningless, Nauman’s act reintroduced something of the ritualistic power that fire had acquired amid the era’s countercultural protests. Burning Small Fires thus resonates with a year marked by mounting opposition to the Vietnam War and widespread political and social unrest.

 

There is no record of the two artists discussing the book, and Nauman was characteristically volatile when questioned about it, leaving the boundary between homage and iconoclasm deliberately fluid. Ruscha, for his part, often joked about the fate of his inexpensive artist’s books, confessing to A. D. Coleman that his publications often "end up in the trash" (The New York Times, August 27, 1972). Nauman’s gesture can therefore be read as both an irreverent tribute to Ruscha and a literal enactment of the precarious status of the artist’s book as object.

 

Nauman’s poster-book was exhibited in 2022 as part of Burning Matter at Studio 454 in Venice, alongside works by Ed Ruscha, Jonathan Monk, Tiane Doan na Champassak, and other artists exploring fire as both image and material.

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Bruce Nauman and Ed Ruscha share profound conceptual affinities. In her profile of Nauman for Artforum (Summer 1986), Coosje van Bruggen recounts how, shortly after abandoning painting himself, Nauman encountered Ruscha’s work for the first time and was excited by the possibilities it opened up. Works such as Damage (1964), and Burning Gas Station (1966) struck him as being as much about thought and perception as about painting itself.

 

In 1968, Nauman produced the artist’s book Burning Small Fires, featuring fifteen photographs of himself burning a copy of Ruscha’s 1964 edition of Various Small Fires and Milk. Like Ruscha’s book, which contains fifteen images of small fires, Nauman’s work comprises fifteen photographs; one, larger than the others, reveals his hand, extending the homage from the photographic into the gestural and performative.

 

As art historian Taylor Walsh has noted, while Ruscha treated burning as meaningless, Nauman’s act reintroduced something of the ritualistic power that fire had acquired amid the era’s countercultural protests. Burning Small Fires thus resonates with a year marked by mounting opposition to the Vietnam War and widespread political and social unrest.

 

There is no record of the two artists discussing the book, and Nauman was characteristically volatile when questioned about it, leaving the boundary between homage and iconoclasm deliberately fluid. Ruscha, for his part, often joked about the fate of his inexpensive artist’s books, confessing to A. D. Coleman that his publications often "end up in the trash" (The New York Times, August 27, 1972). Nauman’s gesture can therefore be read as both an irreverent tribute to Ruscha and a literal enactment of the precarious status of the artist’s book as object.

 

Nauman’s poster-book was exhibited in 2022 as part of Burning Matter at Studio 454 in Venice, alongside works by Ed Ruscha, Jonathan Monk, Tiane Doan na Champassak, and other artists exploring fire as both image and material.

San Francisco: Self-published
Single folded sheet (93 × 127 cm unfolded)
32 × 24.5 cm

Bruce Nauman and Ed Ruscha share profound conceptual affinities. In her profile of Nauman for Artforum (Summer 1986), Coosje van Bruggen recounts how, shortly after abandoning painting himself, Nauman encountered Ruscha’s work for the first time and was excited by the possibilities it opened up. Works such as Damage (1964), and Burning Gas Station (1966) struck him as being as much about thought and perception as about painting itself.

 

In 1968, Nauman produced the artist’s book Burning Small Fires, featuring fifteen photographs of himself burning a copy of Ruscha’s 1964 edition of Various Small Fires and Milk. Like Ruscha’s book, which contains fifteen images of small fires, Nauman’s work comprises fifteen photographs; one, larger than the others, reveals his hand, extending the homage from the photographic into the gestural and performative.

 

As art historian Taylor Walsh has noted, while Ruscha treated burning as meaningless, Nauman’s act reintroduced something of the ritualistic power that fire had acquired amid the era’s countercultural protests. Burning Small Fires thus resonates with a year marked by mounting opposition to the Vietnam War and widespread political and social unrest.

 

There is no record of the two artists discussing the book, and Nauman was characteristically volatile when questioned about it, leaving the boundary between homage and iconoclasm deliberately fluid. Ruscha, for his part, often joked about the fate of his inexpensive artist’s books, confessing to A. D. Coleman that his publications often "end up in the trash" (The New York Times, August 27, 1972). Nauman’s gesture can therefore be read as both an irreverent tribute to Ruscha and a literal enactment of the precarious status of the artist’s book as object.

 

Nauman’s poster-book was exhibited in 2022 as part of Burning Matter at Studio 454 in Venice, alongside works by Ed Ruscha, Jonathan Monk, Tiane Doan na Champassak, and other artists exploring fire as both image and material.

MORE BOOKS

Bruce Nauman and Ed Ruscha share profound conceptual affinities. In her profile of Nauman for Artforum (Summer 1986), Coosje van Bruggen recounts how, shortly after abandoning painting himself, Nauman encountered Ruscha’s work for the first time and was excited by the possibilities it opened up. Works such as Damage (1964), and Burning Gas Station (1966) struck him as being as much about thought and perception as about painting itself.

 

In 1968, Nauman produced the artist’s book Burning Small Fires, featuring fifteen photographs of himself burning a copy of Ruscha’s 1964 edition of Various Small Fires and Milk. Like Ruscha’s book, which contains fifteen images of small fires, Nauman’s work comprises fifteen photographs; one, larger than the others, reveals his hand, extending the homage from the photographic into the gestural and performative.

 

As art historian Taylor Walsh has noted, while Ruscha treated burning as meaningless, Nauman’s act reintroduced something of the ritualistic power that fire had acquired amid the era’s countercultural protests. Burning Small Fires thus resonates with a year marked by mounting opposition to the Vietnam War and widespread political and social unrest.

 

There is no record of the two artists discussing the book, and Nauman was characteristically volatile when questioned about it, leaving the boundary between homage and iconoclasm deliberately fluid. Ruscha, for his part, often joked about the fate of his inexpensive artist’s books, confessing to A. D. Coleman that his publications often "end up in the trash" (The New York Times, August 27, 1972). Nauman’s gesture can therefore be read as both an irreverent tribute to Ruscha and a literal enactment of the precarious status of the artist’s book as object.

 

Nauman’s poster-book was exhibited in 2022 as part of Burning Matter at Studio 454 in Venice, alongside works by Ed Ruscha, Jonathan Monk, Tiane Doan na Champassak, and other artists exploring fire as both image and material.

MORE BOOKS