Records
Edward Ruscha
1971
Records
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Much has been written about Ed Ruscha’s publications. Milestones in the history of postmodern artists’ books, they marked a decisive shift towards industrial offset printing and helped establish the artist’s book as an inexpensive art ...
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Records
Edward Ruscha
1971
Los Angeles: Heavy Industry Publications
Unpaginated [72 pages]
17.8 × 14 cm
Edition of 2,000

Much has been written about Ed Ruscha’s publications. Milestones in the history of postmodern artists’ books, they marked a decisive shift towards industrial offset printing and helped establish the artist’s book as an inexpensive art form. Ruscha’s publications of the 1960s and early 1970s were conceived as conceptual propositions, characterised by the interplay of abundant imagery, minimal captions, and the use of “text-as-image” on their covers. Yet, as simple as they might seem in concept, each book took the artist a year to conceive, as he confessed in an interview with Willoughby Sharp for Avalanche in 1973:


 


“When I did the books, I had a complete feeling of creation in the same sense that a woman would have a child. I even wrote that down: These books are my children.”


 


Published in an edition of 2,000 copies, Records is a tautological book consisting of a selection of music album covers (on the left) and their records (on the right) from Ruscha’s own collection. The sequence of squares and circles starts with 18 King Size Rhythm & Blues Hits and ends with Linda Ronstadt’s Hand Sown. The rhythm of the layout is punctuated by underground pearls such as a record by his friend Mason Williams, with whom he made the artist’s book Royal Road Test (1967). As with A Few Palm Trees and Colored People, the photographs are removed from their context, floating against a blank background.


 


According to Phillpot, the artist said that, after Crackers, Records was one of his least favourite books, approaching what the critic described as an “engagement with books that was running out of steam” (Éditions 1959–1999, Walker Art Center). In fact, one year later, just after Colored People, Ruscha stopped making books for three decades: “When I got Colored People back from the press, I yawned. I just yawned,” the artist confessed in the same interview with Sharp for Avalanche.

Los Angeles: Heavy Industry Publications
Unpaginated [72 pages]
17.8 × 14 cm
Edition of 2,000

Much has been written about Ed Ruscha’s publications. Milestones in the history of postmodern artists’ books, they marked a decisive shift towards industrial offset printing and helped establish the artist’s book as an inexpensive art form. Ruscha’s publications of the 1960s and early 1970s were conceived as conceptual propositions, characterised by the interplay of abundant imagery, minimal captions, and the use of “text-as-image” on their covers. Yet, as simple as they might seem in concept, each book took the artist a year to conceive, as he confessed in an interview with Willoughby Sharp for Avalanche in 1973:

 

“When I did the books, I had a complete feeling of creation in the same sense that a woman would have a child. I even wrote that down: These books are my children.”

 

Published in an edition of 2,000 copies, Records is a tautological book consisting of a selection of music album covers (on the left) and their records (on the right) from Ruscha’s own collection. The sequence of squares and circles starts with 18 King Size Rhythm & Blues Hits and ends with Linda Ronstadt’s Hand Sown. The rhythm of the layout is punctuated by underground pearls such as a record by his friend Mason Williams, with whom he made the artist’s book Royal Road Test (1967). As with A Few Palm Trees and Colored People, the photographs are removed from their context, floating against a blank background.

 

According to Phillpot, the artist said that, after Crackers, Records was one of his least favourite books, approaching what the critic described as an “engagement with books that was running out of steam” (Éditions 1959–1999, Walker Art Center). In fact, one year later, just after Colored People, Ruscha stopped making books for three decades: “When I got Colored People back from the press, I yawned. I just yawned,” the artist confessed in the same interview with Sharp for Avalanche.

DESCRIPTION

Much has been written about Ed Ruscha’s publications. Milestones in the history of postmodern artists’ books, they marked a decisive shift towards industrial offset printing and helped establish the artist’s book as an inexpensive art form. Ruscha’s publications of the 1960s and early 1970s were conceived as conceptual propositions, characterised by the interplay of abundant imagery, minimal captions, and the use of “text-as-image” on their covers. Yet, as simple as they might seem in concept, each book took the artist a year to conceive, as he confessed in an interview with Willoughby Sharp for Avalanche in 1973:

 

“When I did the books, I had a complete feeling of creation in the same sense that a woman would have a child. I even wrote that down: These books are my children.”

 

Published in an edition of 2,000 copies, Records is a tautological book consisting of a selection of music album covers (on the left) and their records (on the right) from Ruscha’s own collection. The sequence of squares and circles starts with 18 King Size Rhythm & Blues Hits and ends with Linda Ronstadt’s Hand Sown. The rhythm of the layout is punctuated by underground pearls such as a record by his friend Mason Williams, with whom he made the artist’s book Royal Road Test (1967). As with A Few Palm Trees and Colored People, the photographs are removed from their context, floating against a blank background.

 

According to Phillpot, the artist said that, after Crackers, Records was one of his least favourite books, approaching what the critic described as an “engagement with books that was running out of steam” (Éditions 1959–1999, Walker Art Center). In fact, one year later, just after Colored People, Ruscha stopped making books for three decades: “When I got Colored People back from the press, I yawned. I just yawned,” the artist confessed in the same interview with Sharp for Avalanche.

Los Angeles: Heavy Industry Publications
Unpaginated [72 pages]
17.8 × 14 cm
Edition of 2,000

Much has been written about Ed Ruscha’s publications. Milestones in the history of postmodern artists’ books, they marked a decisive shift towards industrial offset printing and helped establish the artist’s book as an inexpensive art form. Ruscha’s publications of the 1960s and early 1970s were conceived as conceptual propositions, characterised by the interplay of abundant imagery, minimal captions, and the use of “text-as-image” on their covers. Yet, as simple as they might seem in concept, each book took the artist a year to conceive, as he confessed in an interview with Willoughby Sharp for Avalanche in 1973:

 

“When I did the books, I had a complete feeling of creation in the same sense that a woman would have a child. I even wrote that down: These books are my children.”

 

Published in an edition of 2,000 copies, Records is a tautological book consisting of a selection of music album covers (on the left) and their records (on the right) from Ruscha’s own collection. The sequence of squares and circles starts with 18 King Size Rhythm & Blues Hits and ends with Linda Ronstadt’s Hand Sown. The rhythm of the layout is punctuated by underground pearls such as a record by his friend Mason Williams, with whom he made the artist’s book Royal Road Test (1967). As with A Few Palm Trees and Colored People, the photographs are removed from their context, floating against a blank background.

 

According to Phillpot, the artist said that, after Crackers, Records was one of his least favourite books, approaching what the critic described as an “engagement with books that was running out of steam” (Éditions 1959–1999, Walker Art Center). In fact, one year later, just after Colored People, Ruscha stopped making books for three decades: “When I got Colored People back from the press, I yawned. I just yawned,” the artist confessed in the same interview with Sharp for Avalanche.

MORE BOOKS

Much has been written about Ed Ruscha’s publications. Milestones in the history of postmodern artists’ books, they marked a decisive shift towards industrial offset printing and helped establish the artist’s book as an inexpensive art form. Ruscha’s publications of the 1960s and early 1970s were conceived as conceptual propositions, characterised by the interplay of abundant imagery, minimal captions, and the use of “text-as-image” on their covers. Yet, as simple as they might seem in concept, each book took the artist a year to conceive, as he confessed in an interview with Willoughby Sharp for Avalanche in 1973:

 

“When I did the books, I had a complete feeling of creation in the same sense that a woman would have a child. I even wrote that down: These books are my children.”

 

Published in an edition of 2,000 copies, Records is a tautological book consisting of a selection of music album covers (on the left) and their records (on the right) from Ruscha’s own collection. The sequence of squares and circles starts with 18 King Size Rhythm & Blues Hits and ends with Linda Ronstadt’s Hand Sown. The rhythm of the layout is punctuated by underground pearls such as a record by his friend Mason Williams, with whom he made the artist’s book Royal Road Test (1967). As with A Few Palm Trees and Colored People, the photographs are removed from their context, floating against a blank background.

 

According to Phillpot, the artist said that, after Crackers, Records was one of his least favourite books, approaching what the critic described as an “engagement with books that was running out of steam” (Éditions 1959–1999, Walker Art Center). In fact, one year later, just after Colored People, Ruscha stopped making books for three decades: “When I got Colored People back from the press, I yawned. I just yawned,” the artist confessed in the same interview with Sharp for Avalanche.

MORE BOOKS