Ed Ruscha

(b. 1937) initially gained attention in the early

1960s with paintings, drawings, and photographic

books that focused on his fascination with the

unique culture, vernacular, and sensibility of his

adopted home of Los Angeles. Ruscha, who is wary

of labels, refused to be categorized as a pop artist,

and indeed, his work reaches beyond that classification.

He has been considered a "West Coast"

artist, and although Los Angeles is undeniably a

source of inspiration for his work, the themes he

addresses are far-reaching and universal.

This first monograph on Ruscha's work looks with

discernment and insightful detail at the prolific and

many-faceted career of an artist whom one could

describe as pop, conceptual, or surrealist; a painter

as well as a print-, book-, and filmmaker. The

thematic and loosely chronological structure of the

book brings to light the diversity of Ruscha's work,

while at the same time underlining the continuity and

recurrence of themes and ideas within his ever

surprising and prolific career.

Richard D. Marshall

is an independent curator and critic who, during his

twenty-year tenure as curator at the Whitney

Museum of American Art, worked extensively with

Ed Ruscha. He is the author of Edward Ruscha: Los

Angeles Apartments, and has published many books

and exhibition catalogues on artists Jean-Michel

Basquiat, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Louise

Bourgeois, among others. In 2002 he curated the

exhibition "Edward Ruscha: Made in Los Angeles"

at the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid.