Business Cards
Edward Ruscha, Billy Al Bengston
1968
Business Cards
Business Cards
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In 1965, Ed Ruscha famously made himself a business card featuring his name and its spelling – “Ed-werd Rew-shay” – alongside the profession “Young Artist”. This version of the calling card accompanied and/or was reproduced ...
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Business Cards
Edward Ruscha, Billy Al Bengston
1968
Los Angeles: Self-published
Unpaginated [32 pages]
22.2 × 14.3 cm
Edition of 1,000: signed by both artists

In 1965, Ed Ruscha famously made himself a business card featuring his name and its spelling – “Ed-werd Rew-shay” – alongside the profession “Young Artist”. This version of the calling card accompanied and/or was reproduced in several early exhibitions and projects, including Five 1955 Girlfriends, Oklahoma City, and the 1972-publication by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.


 


The hype surrounding this kind of ephemera was revisited by Ruscha and his friend Billy Al Bengston in a joint artist’s book from 1968. The book documents a business-card exchange project, beginning with the artists designing the cards and culminating in a ceremonial exchange at the Bistro restaurant in Beverly Hills.


 


Quite exotic and scrappy compared with his serial, design-driven typographic publications, Business Cards unfolds as a witty, performative celebration in book form, marked by photographs, notes, stamps, and stapled cards.


 


Published in 1,000 unique copies, the volume is bound between two wood-grained Bristol board covers and secured with a knotted leather cord, distilling a rustic West American imagery into a conceptual format. Each copy is signed by both artists and features a photograph mounted in photo corners on its cover, documenting the exact moment when Ruscha and Bengston exchange their stacks of business cards on 3 January 1968.

Los Angeles: Self-published
Unpaginated [32 pages]
22.2 × 14.3 cm
Edition of 1,000: signed by both artists

In 1965, Ed Ruscha famously made himself a business card featuring his name and its spelling – “Ed-werd Rew-shay” – alongside the profession “Young Artist”. This version of the calling card accompanied and/or was reproduced in several early exhibitions and projects, including Five 1955 Girlfriends, Oklahoma City, and the 1972-publication by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

 

The hype surrounding this kind of ephemera was revisited by Ruscha and his friend Billy Al Bengston in a joint artist’s book from 1968. The book documents a business-card exchange project, beginning with the artists designing the cards and culminating in a ceremonial exchange at the Bistro restaurant in Beverly Hills.

 

Quite exotic and scrappy compared with his serial, design-driven typographic publications, Business Cards unfolds as a witty, performative celebration in book form, marked by photographs, notes, stamps, and stapled cards.

 

Published in 1,000 unique copies, the volume is bound between two wood-grained Bristol board covers and secured with a knotted leather cord, distilling a rustic West American imagery into a conceptual format. Each copy is signed by both artists and features a photograph mounted in photo corners on its cover, documenting the exact moment when Ruscha and Bengston exchange their stacks of business cards on 3 January 1968.

DESCRIPTION

In 1965, Ed Ruscha famously made himself a business card featuring his name and its spelling – “Ed-werd Rew-shay” – alongside the profession “Young Artist”. This version of the calling card accompanied and/or was reproduced in several early exhibitions and projects, including Five 1955 Girlfriends, Oklahoma City, and the 1972-publication by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

 

The hype surrounding this kind of ephemera was revisited by Ruscha and his friend Billy Al Bengston in a joint artist’s book from 1968. The book documents a business-card exchange project, beginning with the artists designing the cards and culminating in a ceremonial exchange at the Bistro restaurant in Beverly Hills.

 

Quite exotic and scrappy compared with his serial, design-driven typographic publications, Business Cards unfolds as a witty, performative celebration in book form, marked by photographs, notes, stamps, and stapled cards.

 

Published in 1,000 unique copies, the volume is bound between two wood-grained Bristol board covers and secured with a knotted leather cord, distilling a rustic West American imagery into a conceptual format. Each copy is signed by both artists and features a photograph mounted in photo corners on its cover, documenting the exact moment when Ruscha and Bengston exchange their stacks of business cards on 3 January 1968.

Los Angeles: Self-published
Unpaginated [32 pages]
22.2 × 14.3 cm
Edition of 1,000: signed by both artists

In 1965, Ed Ruscha famously made himself a business card featuring his name and its spelling – “Ed-werd Rew-shay” – alongside the profession “Young Artist”. This version of the calling card accompanied and/or was reproduced in several early exhibitions and projects, including Five 1955 Girlfriends, Oklahoma City, and the 1972-publication by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

 

The hype surrounding this kind of ephemera was revisited by Ruscha and his friend Billy Al Bengston in a joint artist’s book from 1968. The book documents a business-card exchange project, beginning with the artists designing the cards and culminating in a ceremonial exchange at the Bistro restaurant in Beverly Hills.

 

Quite exotic and scrappy compared with his serial, design-driven typographic publications, Business Cards unfolds as a witty, performative celebration in book form, marked by photographs, notes, stamps, and stapled cards.

 

Published in 1,000 unique copies, the volume is bound between two wood-grained Bristol board covers and secured with a knotted leather cord, distilling a rustic West American imagery into a conceptual format. Each copy is signed by both artists and features a photograph mounted in photo corners on its cover, documenting the exact moment when Ruscha and Bengston exchange their stacks of business cards on 3 January 1968.

MORE BOOKS

In 1965, Ed Ruscha famously made himself a business card featuring his name and its spelling – “Ed-werd Rew-shay” – alongside the profession “Young Artist”. This version of the calling card accompanied and/or was reproduced in several early exhibitions and projects, including Five 1955 Girlfriends, Oklahoma City, and the 1972-publication by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

 

The hype surrounding this kind of ephemera was revisited by Ruscha and his friend Billy Al Bengston in a joint artist’s book from 1968. The book documents a business-card exchange project, beginning with the artists designing the cards and culminating in a ceremonial exchange at the Bistro restaurant in Beverly Hills.

 

Quite exotic and scrappy compared with his serial, design-driven typographic publications, Business Cards unfolds as a witty, performative celebration in book form, marked by photographs, notes, stamps, and stapled cards.

 

Published in 1,000 unique copies, the volume is bound between two wood-grained Bristol board covers and secured with a knotted leather cord, distilling a rustic West American imagery into a conceptual format. Each copy is signed by both artists and features a photograph mounted in photo corners on its cover, documenting the exact moment when Ruscha and Bengston exchange their stacks of business cards on 3 January 1968.

MORE BOOKS