Yale University Press, 2023. Hardcover, 320pp., 9.5 x 11.5 inches 

New

With cover artwork specially created by Ruscha, this book documents hundreds of projects and miscellaneous ephemera produced by the artist alongside his main oeuvre—including installations, films, painted book covers, contour gauge profiles, and more

Introducing readers to the stunning breadth of Edward Ruscha’s (b. 1937) creative output over the course of his entire life, this book includes materials dating back to his childhood and extending to his present-day output. The projects featured here fall outside Ruscha’s production of paintings, drawings, prints, and artists’ books. Many of these are unknown and most are reproduced here for the first time. Composed of three sections—Projects and Ephemera; Contour Gauge Profiles; and Painted Book Covers—the book offers Ruscha enthusiasts and scholars a hitherto unknown aspect of Ruscha’s practice, while also showing how these projects coincide with, and sometimes even prefigure, the artistic work for which he is best known. The approximately 270 painted book covers, begun in 1990, utilize found books as support for small paintings and drawings. The 57 contour gauge profiles are silhouette-like profiles made using a mechanical device for reproducing contours. The largest section, Projects and Ephemera, consists of installations, sculpture and objects, films, book and poster design, utilitarian works, and more.