Ed Ruscha’s photography was unconventional for it’s time, as was his way of presenting his work in self published unpretentious books. Each of his books were upfront about their content, Twenty-six Gasoline Stations, Some Los Angeles Apartments, Nine Swimming Pools and Every Building on the Sunset Strip. I love this approach, its stripped back and simple, beautiful and upfront, a documentation of what is around us, presented simply for us to experience in a straightforward way.
Ruscha shot the entire length of the Sunset Strip from the back of a pickup truck, then spent 9 months splicing the images together to form the continuous length. The presentation is a concertina side after side of folded paper, the top side shows one side of the street and the bottom shows the opposite side, facing each other. Ruscha sold his books for only a few dollars each, disregarding the artist’s book as a precious object, he has described them as “snapshots with only an average attention to clarity” and “technical data”
