Hard Light
Edward Ruscha, Lawrence Weiner
1978
Hard Light
Hard Light
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Conceived with Lawrence Weiner, Hard Light (1978) is Ed Ruscha’s fourth collaborative artist’s book, following Royal Road Test (1967), Business Cards (1968), and Crackers (1969), each made with a different artistic partner. Structured as a ...
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Hard Light
Edward Ruscha, Lawrence Weiner
1978
Los Angeles and New York: Heavy Industry Publications and Moved Pictures
Unpaginated [120 pages]
17.8 × 12.8 cm
Edition of 3,560

Conceived with Lawrence Weiner, Hard Light (1978) is Ed Ruscha’s fourth collaborative artist’s book, following Royal Road Test (1967), Business Cards (1968), and Crackers (1969), each made with a different artistic partner. Structured as a photo-novel starring Shelley Chamberlain, Suzanne Chandler, and Susan Haller, the publication loosely recalls the road-movie narrative of Royal Road Test, in which three male friends – Mason Williams, Patrick Blackwell, and Ruscha himself – throw a typewriter out of the window of a 1963 Buick LeSabre.


 


Less dramatic and performative, Hard Light documents a day in the lives of three women in Los Angeles: by the sea, in the kitchen, or driving a Fiat through the neighborhood. The story unfolds across nine chapters composed entirely of images (65 photographs), until a text interrupts the photographic sequence at its climax: “IN THE YEAR 2000 ALL RACECAR DRIVING WILL BE TAKEN OVER BY WOMEN.”


 


Written by Weiner, this phrase, like many of his statements, is not to be taken ad litteram but, in this context, as an open-ended proposition that disrupts the narrative flow. It invites several possible readings: Is it a prophecy? Are the three women planning something? Are they subverting the hypermasculine world of car racing? Or are the two artists, kindred spirits in their deadpan humor, introducing a conceptual proposition as an act of détournement?


 


Resonating with Umberto Eco’s theory of the open work, the publication becomes an opera aperta, leaving the phrase suspended in a field of multiple interpretations.


 


Hard Light is the 24th artist’s book for Weiner and the 16th for Ruscha. 

Los Angeles and New York: Heavy Industry Publications and Moved Pictures
Unpaginated [120 pages]
17.8 × 12.8 cm
Edition of 3,560

Conceived with Lawrence Weiner, Hard Light (1978) is Ed Ruscha’s fourth collaborative artist’s book, following Royal Road Test (1967), Business Cards (1968), and Crackers (1969), each made with a different artistic partner. Structured as a photo-novel starring Shelley Chamberlain, Suzanne Chandler, and Susan Haller, the publication loosely recalls the road-movie narrative of Royal Road Test, in which three male friends – Mason Williams, Patrick Blackwell, and Ruscha himself – throw a typewriter out of the window of a 1963 Buick LeSabre.

 

Less dramatic and performative, Hard Light documents a day in the lives of three women in Los Angeles: by the sea, in the kitchen, or driving a Fiat through the neighborhood. The story unfolds across nine chapters composed entirely of images (65 photographs), until a text interrupts the photographic sequence at its climax: “IN THE YEAR 2000 ALL RACECAR DRIVING WILL BE TAKEN OVER BY WOMEN.”

 

Written by Weiner, this phrase, like many of his statements, is not to be taken ad litteram but, in this context, as an open-ended proposition that disrupts the narrative flow. It invites several possible readings: Is it a prophecy? Are the three women planning something? Are they subverting the hypermasculine world of car racing? Or are the two artists, kindred spirits in their deadpan humor, introducing a conceptual proposition as an act of détournement?

 

Resonating with Umberto Eco’s theory of the open work, the publication becomes an opera aperta, leaving the phrase suspended in a field of multiple interpretations.

 

Hard Light is the 24th artist’s book for Weiner and the 16th for Ruscha. 

DESCRIPTION

Conceived with Lawrence Weiner, Hard Light (1978) is Ed Ruscha’s fourth collaborative artist’s book, following Royal Road Test (1967), Business Cards (1968), and Crackers (1969), each made with a different artistic partner. Structured as a photo-novel starring Shelley Chamberlain, Suzanne Chandler, and Susan Haller, the publication loosely recalls the road-movie narrative of Royal Road Test, in which three male friends – Mason Williams, Patrick Blackwell, and Ruscha himself – throw a typewriter out of the window of a 1963 Buick LeSabre.

 

Less dramatic and performative, Hard Light documents a day in the lives of three women in Los Angeles: by the sea, in the kitchen, or driving a Fiat through the neighborhood. The story unfolds across nine chapters composed entirely of images (65 photographs), until a text interrupts the photographic sequence at its climax: “IN THE YEAR 2000 ALL RACECAR DRIVING WILL BE TAKEN OVER BY WOMEN.”

 

Written by Weiner, this phrase, like many of his statements, is not to be taken ad litteram but, in this context, as an open-ended proposition that disrupts the narrative flow. It invites several possible readings: Is it a prophecy? Are the three women planning something? Are they subverting the hypermasculine world of car racing? Or are the two artists, kindred spirits in their deadpan humor, introducing a conceptual proposition as an act of détournement?

 

Resonating with Umberto Eco’s theory of the open work, the publication becomes an opera aperta, leaving the phrase suspended in a field of multiple interpretations.

 

Hard Light is the 24th artist’s book for Weiner and the 16th for Ruscha. 

Los Angeles and New York: Heavy Industry Publications and Moved Pictures
Unpaginated [120 pages]
17.8 × 12.8 cm
Edition of 3,560

Conceived with Lawrence Weiner, Hard Light (1978) is Ed Ruscha’s fourth collaborative artist’s book, following Royal Road Test (1967), Business Cards (1968), and Crackers (1969), each made with a different artistic partner. Structured as a photo-novel starring Shelley Chamberlain, Suzanne Chandler, and Susan Haller, the publication loosely recalls the road-movie narrative of Royal Road Test, in which three male friends – Mason Williams, Patrick Blackwell, and Ruscha himself – throw a typewriter out of the window of a 1963 Buick LeSabre.

 

Less dramatic and performative, Hard Light documents a day in the lives of three women in Los Angeles: by the sea, in the kitchen, or driving a Fiat through the neighborhood. The story unfolds across nine chapters composed entirely of images (65 photographs), until a text interrupts the photographic sequence at its climax: “IN THE YEAR 2000 ALL RACECAR DRIVING WILL BE TAKEN OVER BY WOMEN.”

 

Written by Weiner, this phrase, like many of his statements, is not to be taken ad litteram but, in this context, as an open-ended proposition that disrupts the narrative flow. It invites several possible readings: Is it a prophecy? Are the three women planning something? Are they subverting the hypermasculine world of car racing? Or are the two artists, kindred spirits in their deadpan humor, introducing a conceptual proposition as an act of détournement?

 

Resonating with Umberto Eco’s theory of the open work, the publication becomes an opera aperta, leaving the phrase suspended in a field of multiple interpretations.

 

Hard Light is the 24th artist’s book for Weiner and the 16th for Ruscha. 

MORE BOOKS

Conceived with Lawrence Weiner, Hard Light (1978) is Ed Ruscha’s fourth collaborative artist’s book, following Royal Road Test (1967), Business Cards (1968), and Crackers (1969), each made with a different artistic partner. Structured as a photo-novel starring Shelley Chamberlain, Suzanne Chandler, and Susan Haller, the publication loosely recalls the road-movie narrative of Royal Road Test, in which three male friends – Mason Williams, Patrick Blackwell, and Ruscha himself – throw a typewriter out of the window of a 1963 Buick LeSabre.

 

Less dramatic and performative, Hard Light documents a day in the lives of three women in Los Angeles: by the sea, in the kitchen, or driving a Fiat through the neighborhood. The story unfolds across nine chapters composed entirely of images (65 photographs), until a text interrupts the photographic sequence at its climax: “IN THE YEAR 2000 ALL RACECAR DRIVING WILL BE TAKEN OVER BY WOMEN.”

 

Written by Weiner, this phrase, like many of his statements, is not to be taken ad litteram but, in this context, as an open-ended proposition that disrupts the narrative flow. It invites several possible readings: Is it a prophecy? Are the three women planning something? Are they subverting the hypermasculine world of car racing? Or are the two artists, kindred spirits in their deadpan humor, introducing a conceptual proposition as an act of détournement?

 

Resonating with Umberto Eco’s theory of the open work, the publication becomes an opera aperta, leaving the phrase suspended in a field of multiple interpretations.

 

Hard Light is the 24th artist’s book for Weiner and the 16th for Ruscha. 

MORE BOOKS