Royal Road Test
Edward Ruscha, Mason Williams, Patrick Blackwell
1967
Royal Road Test
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This slightly performative book is a collaboration between Mason Williams, Edward Ruscha, and Patrick Blackwell. Structured as a photo-novel, it documents the cathartic and hilarious gesture of throwing a Royal typewriter out of the window ...
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Royal Road Test
Edward Ruscha, Mason Williams, Patrick Blackwell
1967
Los Angeles: Self-published
Unpaginated [62 pages]
24 × 16 cm
Edition of 1,000

This slightly performative book is a collaboration between Mason Williams, Edward Ruscha, and Patrick Blackwell. Structured as a photo-novel, it documents the cathartic and hilarious gesture of throwing a Royal typewriter out of the window of a 1963 Buick LeSabre travelling at 140 km/h on US Highway 91, southwest of Las Vegas. Each artist has his part: Williams the thrower, Ruscha the driver, and Blackwell the photographer.


 


From its inception to its aftermath, the event is documented as a crime scene. In his analysis of the photographs and captions, Clive Phillpot tracks the anatomy of the typewriter’s fall:


 


“The core of the book is a photographic examination of the wreckage of the typewriter strewn over many square yards, spoofing the methods of an investigator analyzing the demise of an automobile prototype, a detective surveying a crime scene, or even a land artist working in a remote location […] In a very brief accompanying text, the typewriter is said to have been ‘carrying within itself the seeds of its destruction.’ Perhaps the plan for the event was typed on this very machine, or perhaps the book itself might also be said to have registered the triumph of the camera over the typewriter.” (Edward Ruscha: Éditions 1959–1999, Walker Art Center, 1999)


 


Royal Road Test is more than vandalistic and iconoclastic, as it situates the gesture at the permeable edges of text and image within the conceptual practice of the three artists. A satire of the romantic perception of the open road in the Nevada desert, this publication marks Ed Ruscha’s first collaborative artist’s book, followed by Crackers in 1969 (with the same Mason Williams and Larry Bell), and Hard Light in 1978 (with Lawrence Weiner).

Los Angeles: Self-published
Unpaginated [62 pages]
24 × 16 cm
Edition of 1,000

This slightly performative book is a collaboration between Mason Williams, Edward Ruscha, and Patrick Blackwell. Structured as a photo-novel, it documents the cathartic and hilarious gesture of throwing a Royal typewriter out of the window of a 1963 Buick LeSabre travelling at 140 km/h on US Highway 91, southwest of Las Vegas. Each artist has his part: Williams the thrower, Ruscha the driver, and Blackwell the photographer.

 

From its inception to its aftermath, the event is documented as a crime scene. In his analysis of the photographs and captions, Clive Phillpot tracks the anatomy of the typewriter’s fall:

 

“The core of the book is a photographic examination of the wreckage of the typewriter strewn over many square yards, spoofing the methods of an investigator analyzing the demise of an automobile prototype, a detective surveying a crime scene, or even a land artist working in a remote location […] In a very brief accompanying text, the typewriter is said to have been ‘carrying within itself the seeds of its destruction.’ Perhaps the plan for the event was typed on this very machine, or perhaps the book itself might also be said to have registered the triumph of the camera over the typewriter.” (Edward Ruscha: Éditions 1959–1999, Walker Art Center, 1999)

 

Royal Road Test is more than vandalistic and iconoclastic, as it situates the gesture at the permeable edges of text and image within the conceptual practice of the three artists. A satire of the romantic perception of the open road in the Nevada desert, this publication marks Ed Ruscha’s first collaborative artist’s book, followed by Crackers in 1969 (with the same Mason Williams and Larry Bell), and Hard Light in 1978 (with Lawrence Weiner).

DESCRIPTION

This slightly performative book is a collaboration between Mason Williams, Edward Ruscha, and Patrick Blackwell. Structured as a photo-novel, it documents the cathartic and hilarious gesture of throwing a Royal typewriter out of the window of a 1963 Buick LeSabre travelling at 140 km/h on US Highway 91, southwest of Las Vegas. Each artist has his part: Williams the thrower, Ruscha the driver, and Blackwell the photographer.

 

From its inception to its aftermath, the event is documented as a crime scene. In his analysis of the photographs and captions, Clive Phillpot tracks the anatomy of the typewriter’s fall:

 

“The core of the book is a photographic examination of the wreckage of the typewriter strewn over many square yards, spoofing the methods of an investigator analyzing the demise of an automobile prototype, a detective surveying a crime scene, or even a land artist working in a remote location […] In a very brief accompanying text, the typewriter is said to have been ‘carrying within itself the seeds of its destruction.’ Perhaps the plan for the event was typed on this very machine, or perhaps the book itself might also be said to have registered the triumph of the camera over the typewriter.” (Edward Ruscha: Éditions 1959–1999, Walker Art Center, 1999)

 

Royal Road Test is more than vandalistic and iconoclastic, as it situates the gesture at the permeable edges of text and image within the conceptual practice of the three artists. A satire of the romantic perception of the open road in the Nevada desert, this publication marks Ed Ruscha’s first collaborative artist’s book, followed by Crackers in 1969 (with the same Mason Williams and Larry Bell), and Hard Light in 1978 (with Lawrence Weiner).

Los Angeles: Self-published
Unpaginated [62 pages]
24 × 16 cm
Edition of 1,000

This slightly performative book is a collaboration between Mason Williams, Edward Ruscha, and Patrick Blackwell. Structured as a photo-novel, it documents the cathartic and hilarious gesture of throwing a Royal typewriter out of the window of a 1963 Buick LeSabre travelling at 140 km/h on US Highway 91, southwest of Las Vegas. Each artist has his part: Williams the thrower, Ruscha the driver, and Blackwell the photographer.

 

From its inception to its aftermath, the event is documented as a crime scene. In his analysis of the photographs and captions, Clive Phillpot tracks the anatomy of the typewriter’s fall:

 

“The core of the book is a photographic examination of the wreckage of the typewriter strewn over many square yards, spoofing the methods of an investigator analyzing the demise of an automobile prototype, a detective surveying a crime scene, or even a land artist working in a remote location […] In a very brief accompanying text, the typewriter is said to have been ‘carrying within itself the seeds of its destruction.’ Perhaps the plan for the event was typed on this very machine, or perhaps the book itself might also be said to have registered the triumph of the camera over the typewriter.” (Edward Ruscha: Éditions 1959–1999, Walker Art Center, 1999)

 

Royal Road Test is more than vandalistic and iconoclastic, as it situates the gesture at the permeable edges of text and image within the conceptual practice of the three artists. A satire of the romantic perception of the open road in the Nevada desert, this publication marks Ed Ruscha’s first collaborative artist’s book, followed by Crackers in 1969 (with the same Mason Williams and Larry Bell), and Hard Light in 1978 (with Lawrence Weiner).

MORE BOOKS

This slightly performative book is a collaboration between Mason Williams, Edward Ruscha, and Patrick Blackwell. Structured as a photo-novel, it documents the cathartic and hilarious gesture of throwing a Royal typewriter out of the window of a 1963 Buick LeSabre travelling at 140 km/h on US Highway 91, southwest of Las Vegas. Each artist has his part: Williams the thrower, Ruscha the driver, and Blackwell the photographer.

 

From its inception to its aftermath, the event is documented as a crime scene. In his analysis of the photographs and captions, Clive Phillpot tracks the anatomy of the typewriter’s fall:

 

“The core of the book is a photographic examination of the wreckage of the typewriter strewn over many square yards, spoofing the methods of an investigator analyzing the demise of an automobile prototype, a detective surveying a crime scene, or even a land artist working in a remote location […] In a very brief accompanying text, the typewriter is said to have been ‘carrying within itself the seeds of its destruction.’ Perhaps the plan for the event was typed on this very machine, or perhaps the book itself might also be said to have registered the triumph of the camera over the typewriter.” (Edward Ruscha: Éditions 1959–1999, Walker Art Center, 1999)

 

Royal Road Test is more than vandalistic and iconoclastic, as it situates the gesture at the permeable edges of text and image within the conceptual practice of the three artists. A satire of the romantic perception of the open road in the Nevada desert, this publication marks Ed Ruscha’s first collaborative artist’s book, followed by Crackers in 1969 (with the same Mason Williams and Larry Bell), and Hard Light in 1978 (with Lawrence Weiner).

MORE BOOKS