Ruscha, Ed

A fine collection of 15 artist's books (and one monograph),  in various formats, mostly first editions, of which three are inscribed or signed  published 1963-1980, as follows:



Twentysix Gasoline Stations. Alhambra, California: Cunningham Press, 1963. (7 15/16 x 5 ½ in.; 1 x 140 mm).  26 photographic  illustrations. Title printed in red ink on cream wrappers covered in glassine; minor spotting to top of backstrip. First edition of Ruscha's first book, limited edition, copy no. 153 from a total edition of 400, inscribed on the dedication leaf: " Hello |Miriam|Love, | Ed 1964."  Engberg and Philpot B1 — Various Small Fires and Milk. Los Angeles: Anderson, Ritchie & Simon, 1964. (7 x 5 ½ in.; 180 x 140 mm).  15 tinted lithographs. Title printed in black ink on white wrappers covered in glassine. First edition, one of 400 copies. Engberg and Philpot B2 — Various Small Fires and Milk. Los Angeles: Anderson, Ritchie & Simon, 1970. (7 x 5 ½ in.; 180 x 140 mm).  15 tinted lithographs. Title printed in black ink on white wrappers covered in glassine; glassine frayed and age darkened on backstrip and losses to bottom margin. Second edition, signed by Ruscha on the flyleaf. Engberg and Philpot B2n — Some Los Angeles Apartments. Los Angeles: Anderson, Ritchie & Simon, 1965. (7 x 5 1/2 in.; 180 x 140 mm). 34 photographic illustrations. Title printed in green ink on white wrappers covered in glassine. First edition, one of 700 copies. Engberg and Philpot B3 — Every Building on the Sunset Strip. [Los Angeles: Dick de Rusha], 1966. (7 x 5 5/8 in.; 180 x 143 mm). Photographic panorama in an accordion-fold format; some discoloration to folds.  Title printed in silver on upper wrapper and spine, silver mylar slipcase; backstrip of wrapper age darkened, slipcase cracked along top and bottom. First edition, one of 1,000 copies. Engberg and Philpot B4 — Thirtyfour Parking Lots in Los Angeles.  [Los Angeles: Blair Litho], 1967. (110 x 8 in.; 258 x 204 mm). 34 photographic illustration being aerial views of parking lots by Art Alanis; dated-stamped Jan. 28 1968 in red on fly leaf. Title printed in orange ink on white wrappers covered in glassine; glassine frayed along top margin and losses to bottom corners on back, marginal discoloration to glassine. First edition, one of 2,413, inscribed on the title-page: "To Chuck | From Ed." Engberg and Philpot B5 — Royal Road Test. With Mason Williams and Patrick Blackwell.  [Los Angeles: Blair Litho], 1967. (9 3/8 x 6 ¼ in.; 239 x 160 mm). 36 photographic illustrations. Title printed in black ink on tan paper, spiral binding. First edition, one of 1,000 copies. Engberg and Philpot B6 — Nine Swimming Pools and a Broken Glass.  [Los Angeles: Blair Litho], 1968. (7 x 5 1/2 in.; 180 x 140). Title printed in blue ink, 4-color offset printing of 10 photographic illustrations. Title printed in black ink on white wrappers covered in glassine; several tears to lower glassine cover. First edition, one of 2,400 copies. Engberg and Philpot B8 — Crackers. With Mason Williams. [Burbank: G. R. Huttner Lithography], 1969. 115 photographic illustrations. On the inside back flap of the cover is a short story by Williams. Plain brown wrappers, Title printed in red on coated paper. First edition, one of 5,000 copies. This is Ed Ruscha's photo-illustrated narrative featuring noted Los Angeles fashion designer Rudi Gernreich, his frequent model Leon Bing, artist Larry Bell, and Tommy Smothers as models based on Mason Williams' text "How to Derive the Maximum Enjoyment from Crackers" (which is printed on the inside rear flap of the dust jacket). Intentionally photographed as if a collection of film stills, this project served as the basis for Ruscha's 1971 film "Premium." Engberg and Philpot B10 — Babycakes with Weights.  N.p, n.p., 1970. (7 1/2 x 6 in.; 190 x 154 mm). 22 photographic illustrations. Pale blue wrappers, title in pale green, hole punched and tied with a pink satin bow. First edition, one of 1,200 copies. Engberg and Philpot B11 — Real Estate Opportunities. [Burbank: G. R. Huttner Lithography], 1970.  (7 x 5 ½ in.; 180 x 140 mm). 25 photographic illustrations. Title printed in black ink on white wrappers covered in glassine; backstrip of glassine slightly yellowed.  First edition, one of 4,000 copies. Engberg and Philpot B12 — A Few Palm Trees. [Burbank: G. R. Huttner Lithography], 1971. (7 x 5 1/2 in.; 180 x 140 mm). 14 photographic illustrations. Glossy black wrappers. First edition, one of 3,900 copies.  Engberg and Philpot B13 — Dutch Details. N.p., n.p., 1971. (4 3/8 x 14 7/8 in.; 110 x 380 mm). 116 photographic illustrations on 10 lateral fold-out pages. Title printed in black on stiff coated white boards; minor foxing to front cover. Housed in a Plexiglas display case. First edition, one of 3,000 copies. Engberg and Philpot B14 — Records. [Burbank: G. R. Huttner Lithography], 1971. (7 x 5 ½ in.; 180 x 140 mm). 60 photographic illustrations. Title printed in black ink on Red Jersey Leather Embossed paper wrappers. First edition, one of 2,000 copies. Engberg and Philpot B15 — Colored People. [Los Angeles: Technical Color Lab; Burbank: G. R. Huttner Lithography],  1972. (7 x 5 1/2 in.; 180 x 140 mm).  15 photographic illustrations. Title printed in black on stiff glossy yellow wrappers. First edition, on of 4,065 copies. Engberg and Philpot B16 — Hard Light. With Lawrence Weiner. [Los Angeles: Technical Color Lab; Burbank: G. R. Huttner Lithography],  1978. (7 x 5 in.; 180 x 127 mm). 65 photographic illustrations. Laminated wrappers with color photographs. First edition, one of 3,560 copies. Engberg and Philpot B17 — Guacamole Airlines and Other Drawings. New York: Harry Abrams, 1980. (10 x 10 in.; 255 x 255 mm). Publisher's green cloth lettered in red on front cover and spine, dust-jacket.



 

Condition as described in catalogue entry.
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Ruscha's iconic Twentysix Gasoline Stations is his first artist's book and is often considered to be the first modern livre d'artiste. It is also regarded as a major influence on the emerging artist's book culture. Of Ruscha's work, Joanna Drucker observed that  "Ruscha's books combined the literalness of early California pop art with a flat-footed photographic aesthetic informed by minimalist notions of repetitive sequence and seriality .... Thirty years later, with a quarter of a century of mainstream artworld activity between, the aspect of shock-effect and humor has diminished somewhat. But in 1962 [sic] [his] work read against the photographic landscape of highly aestheticized image-making" (Century of Artist's Books, 2004, p. 76).