Edward Ruscha, Signed (51 results)

Paperback. Condition: Near fine. First edition. Sq. Quarto. 9 1/2'' X 9 1/2''. 82pp. SIGNED BY JOE GOODE. Nicely illustrated with full-page color plates. Incl. biography and exhibition checklist.

Soft Cover. Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition softcover w/french flaps. SIGNED by Edward Ruscha on a bookplate attached to title page (signature only). 96 pages. 84 illustrations w/33 in color. $12.50 price present on rear cover. Size: 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. Signed by Author.

Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. Very Good paperback in a Very Good dust jacket. Boldly SIGNED by Ruscha on the glassine front end page. First Edition, First Printing from an edition of 4000. Overall a bright and attractive copy. The title page and contents page each have a light crease to the upper corner, otherwise the book is clean and bright. Numerous color plates, some fold-out. Light shelf wear to the dust jacket, though no chips of tears. 145 pp. Signed by Author(s).

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. First Edition, First Printing. SIGNED COPY - Göttingen. Steidl. 2004. Cloth cream cloth hardcover, titles blind stamped to front cover, titlers to spine in black; housed in the original printed card slipcase. Landscape quarto. First Edition, First Printing. 4,500 black & white and 13,000 color images have been scanned and digitally composed into four long images that run throughout the book. In 1966 Ruscha published Every Building on The Sunset Strip, showing a famous stretch of real estate on both sides of the street along Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. In July, 1973 he followed the same procedure while documenting Hollywood Boulevard. June 2004, the same type of camera equipment was used to re-photograph the street this time on 35mm color-negative film. SIGNED by Ed Ruscha across the fep. BOOK CONDITION: Fine; a solid, tight, clean copy showing light toning to upper margin of first couple of pages in a Near Fine slipcase showing signs of bumping and wear to upper and lower edges where book is inserted/removed, and light toning to slipcase panel margins. Signed.

Small softcover, one of 3,900 unnumbered copies. Plain black glossy covers show a touch of edgewear; inside cover bears presentation stamp from the estate of Henry Geldzahler. The blank page opposite has an inscription in felt: 'Henry - Ed.' Geldzahler worked as the Metropolitan Museum of Art's curator for American art and the first curator for 20th-century art; later, he served as New York City Commissioner of Cultural Affairs. He also wrote the foreword for Ruscha's 1978 book 'Graphic Works,' making this a nice presentation copy. The artist's twelfth small book, consisting of 14 photographic illustrations of Los Angeles palm trees with location opposite, followed by 31 blank pages. 5.5 x 7". Contact me for a possible discount!

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. First Edition, First Printing. SIGNED COPY New York / Gottingen, Germany: Gagosian Gallery / Steidl 2003. Hardcover in slipcase. First Edition, First Printing. [6], 436, [3] pages. Exhaustive catalogue of the early works, with introductory essays by Walter Hopps and Yve-Alain Bois, a biographical chronology and 7-part bibliography, list of titles and of authors quoted. Boldly SIGNED/INSCRIBED by Ed Ruscha on the half title page: "For Bob Shepard / Best to you! / Ed Ruscha". BOOK CONDITION: Fine; a clean, tight, bright copy in a Near Fine slipcase showing toning along the spine, both front and rear joints and along lower margin of one panel. SIGNED.

Hardcover. Quarto, 259 pages. In Good minus condition. Spine is grey with white print. Boards in grey cloth, white print; light smudging/shelf wear, warping, cocked spine. Illustrated: b&w and color. Signed in ink by the artist on the half-title page. Shelved in Room A. 1404163. Special Collections.

Hardcover. Condition: As New. 1st Edition. First printing. A very fine (as-new) copy without a jacket (as issued). A clean, unmarked copy. SIGNED by Ruscha on title page (as pictured). A beautiful copy. Signed by Author(s).

Soft cover. Condition: Near Fine. Over 100 Color & B/w Illustrations (illustrator). 1st Edition. 1968/1988. Set of two books (Billy and Billy II), each signed, inscribed and dated 2003 on acetate dust jackets. Billy: First edition, first printing (1968). Inscribed and signed by Bengston, "For the sweetest of Malibu kooks / Billy Al Bengston / AKA Moondoggie." Soft cover. Sandpaper wrappers with the title "Billy" in pink flocking on cover, bound with machine screws and nuts, with a pink satin ribbon page marker. Paintings by Billy Al Bengston. Text by James Monte. Includes a list of plates, exhibition history and bibliography. Designed by Ed Ruscha. Unpaginated (64 pp.), with 10 four-color and 36 black and white plates and additional illustrations printed in Los Angeles by Toyo Press. 9 x 11 inches. This first edition was limited to 2,500 copies. Published on the occasion of the 1968 exhibition "Billy Al Bengston" at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (installation designed by Frank Gehry). No ISBN. [Cited in Andrew Roth, ed., The Open Book. (Göteborg, Sweden: Hasselblad Center in association with Steidl Verlag, Göttingen, Germany, 2004).] Very scarce. Billy II: (Paintings of Three Decades): First edition, first printing (1988). Inscribed and signed by Bengston, "To the cool Malibu kooks / Billy Al Bengston / AKA Moondoggie." Soft cover. Photographically illustrated French-fold wrappers. Paintings by Billy Al Bengston. Text by Jane Livingston, Karen Tsujimoto, Henry T. Hopkins and Maurice Tuchman. Includes a chronology, exhibition checklist, selected exhibitions and a selected bibliography. Designed by Dana Levy. 144 pp. (including two 2-page gatefolds), with 60 four-color plates and numerous black-and-white illustrations. 9-5/8 x 10 inches. This first edition was limited to 7,500 copies. Published on the occasion of an exhibition organized by the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, and The Oakland Museum. ISBN: 0877014736. Billy: Near Fine (moderate wear to the extremities, front cover slightly curled, 1/8-inch chip to upper edge of front cover, 1/8-inch closed tear to upper edge of front cover, pin hole at lower right front corner [affecting all pages]). Billy II: (Paintings of Three Decades): Near Fine (moderate surface wear and wear to the extremities, faint crease to back cover, first two pages stuck together, sticker residue on first page, pin hole at lower right corner [affecting all pages]). Featuring one of Ruscha's most inventive book designs, with the front cover being a sheet of 100-grit sandpaper and the back cover a coarser 50-grit sheet. The contrasting pink flocked title provides yet another witty articulation of Ruscha's and Bengston's collaborative sensibilities as demonstrated in their book Business Cards, published the same year. Signed by Author.

No Binding. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. Small octavo. White printed wrappers with pasted in a 52-page leporello (extended 760.7 cm) representing on the top and bottom of each page a continuous stretch of the buildings on both sides of 'sunset strip'. Near pristine in cardboard slip case with original wrapped around silver paper + original wraparound band. An unusual 'very fine' copy of one of the more spectacular artists books ever. - First edition, second issue (lacking flap). One of 1000 copies, signed by Ed Ruscha on title page. Signed by Author(s).

First Edition. First Edition. Thin folio. SIGNED by Ed Ruscha on the front cover, underneath the drawing that he was commissioned to design for this Creative Time production. (Engberg & Phillpot, M55). Faint creasing along the spine and a touch of soiling to the back cover along the spine, else near fine in side-stapled illustrated wrappers. Signed.

Hardcover. Condition: As New. 1st Edition. 1st Printing. Signed. 1 pages. Published in 2000. Rare Ed Ruscha collectible piece. A pristine copy of the Compact Disc (CD) celebrating his landmark London exhibition, signed by Ed Ruscha. Limited Edition of 500 copies. Precedes and should not be confused with the regular edition of the disc. There is no ISBN. The Limited Edition is now rare. A brilliant production by Ed Ruscha and Jonathan Stephenson: Cover photograph of the artist posing against giant posters of "Ed Ruscha In Pisa, Italy", that is, of naked women. Black-and-red CD encased within the jewel case. The CD design brilliantly mimics vintage vinyl records, and as such, alludes to Ed Ruscha's great Artist Book, "Records" (1971). Booklet Insert of art by Ed Ruscha. Original music by David Stephenson and Richard Bell. In jewel case with back cover, as issued. Without DJ, as issued. Released on the occasion of the exhibition, "Mountains And Portraits", held at the Anthony d'Offay Gallery London in May-June 2000. Presents "I Want To Hang Out With Ed Ruscha". An ingenious, one-of-a-kind tribute. No other artist of our time has been comparably and fittingly honored. The whole production honors Ruscha's graphic design-inspired art. His passion for graphics has exerted a decisive influence on Ruscha's art. His greatest work is firmly rooted in his infallible genius for design, typography, and layout, that is to say, the right look and feel of the formal elements that result in what we call a work of art, and it is why he is such an influential Master of the Artist Book genre. "I want to take a plane and fly to LA / I want to hang out with Ed Ruscha / He makes pictures and words interplay / He puts cool into LA / That's Ed Ruscha" (David Stephenson and Richard Bell). "Good art should elicit a response of 'Huh? Wow! ' as opposed to 'Wow! Huh? ' " (Ed Ruscha). An absolute "must-have" collectible, not just memorabilia, item for Ed Ruscha collectors. This is a copy of the Limited Edition of 500 copies. It is very boldly and beautifully signed in black pen-marker on the back of the jewel case by Ed Ruscha. It is signed directly on the jewel case itself, a characteristic Ed Ruscha touch. As such, the case is irreplaceable, rendered more valuable than its contents. This title is a contemporary classic. This is one of few copies of the Limited Edition still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Copies available online have very serious flaws ("Very Good") or are the regular edition. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. One of the greatest artists of the 20th century and our time. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER ED RUSCHA TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). Signed by Author.

First edition, presentation copy inscribed by Ruscha and Bengston in the same pen; (216 x 139 mm; 8¾ x 5½ in); 21 black & white photographs by Ken Price and Larry Bell; loose sheets inserted into original faux wood card wrappers with original rawhide ties, black & white photograph mounted to upper side with photo corners, two business cards stapled to last page, light wear and minor creasing to extremities, a very good copy; [32]pp. Ruscha's seventh book, inscribed: 'Best Regards Billy Al Bengston / Howdy Ed Ruscha. While most copies of this title were signed discreetly by Ruscha and initialled by Bengston, this is the first we've seen with such prominent signatures by both artists in the same pen. The idea for this collaboration between Ed Ruscha and his friend Billy Al Bengston was that they would each design a business card for the other, which they would then exchange at a dinner party on a given date. Business cards contains photographs documenting the process from conception through to the exchange. 'The project pokes fun at the seriousness with which corporate identities are designed, while at the same time taking a jab at the art world as a place of business, where artists don ties and jackets and require professional identification' (Wolf, S., Ed Ruscha and Photography p177). Engberg & Phillpot, Edward Ruscha: Editions 1959-1999. Catalogue Raisonne (B3); The Book of 101 Books: Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century pp182-5; The Open Book: A History of the Photographic Book from 1878 to the Present pp198-9; The Photobook: A History II, pp142-3.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Signed. First Edition. 576 blank pages, 8vo, original blue cloth covers, a.e.g. Described as a sculptural book with double fore-edge printing, text concealed until leaves are fanned. copy 208 of 230, signed by the artist. Shows minor wear.

Softcover. Condition: Very good condition. First edition. Artist book on white 80lb Vicksburg Vellum text paper. Printed by G.R. Huttner Lithography, Burbank, CA. 1/3900 unnumbered copies. Octavo ((7 x 5 1/2). 64pp. Original glossy stiff black wraps. Signed Ed Ruscha on front free endpaper. Verso of title page stating Ruscha copyright and publisher, Heavy Industy Publications, with Hollywood P.O. Box address. The following twenty-eight pages contain b/w photolithographic imagery of palm trees in various locations of los Angeles, with palm trees depicted on the right, exact locations of the trees on facing pages throughout. Pages following images are blank as issued. "Los Angeles's palms have long inspired its artists, from David Hockney's sunlit paintings to Ed Ruscha's photographs, including his 1971 artist's book A Few Palm Trees." (Allison C.Meier, 2018). Ed Ruscha had considered making a book called Seventeen Hollywood Palm Trees, before producing this book. However, the project was never realized and evolved into A Few Palm Trees. Light wear along edges of wraps and lightly rubbed.

Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. Pages unnumbered, illustrated in B&W. - Various Small Fires (second edition 1970) - Edward Ruscha - SIGNED : To Maria ! : Ed Ruscha 1970 - very good copy, interior fine with some small spots on the last two pages, a fragile protective paper cover is pasted on the inside cover. Size: 178 x 140 Mm. Signed by Author(s). Book.

Soft cover. Condition: Good. 1st Edition. A set six of the avant-garde periodical Assembling. Instead of selecting from submissions presented to it, Richard Kostelanetz (and, at various times, Henry James Korn, Mike Metz, Scott Helmes, and David Cole) invited potential contributors to submit a thousand copies of whatever they wanted to include, which were then alphabetically assembled into 8.5 by 11 inch books. Published by Ghilbmessa Inc. (First number) and then by Assembling Press, New York between 1970-1981. Edition of 1000. Overall excellent, well-preserved copies with minor edge-wear and age-toning, some mildly bumped corners, oversized pages in some issues creased at fore-edges. Very Good or better with no major flaws, no internal markings - all in custom protective mylar. Notably - front panel of Issue 1, which is printed on lighter paper than subsequent issues, has small closed tears at the staples - loosely attached thus. Issue 4 has a closed, diagonal tear with creasing at the spine near bottom edge - not affecting binding. Please inquire for further, thorough descriptions of condition of individual issues. Issue 1 (1970) features mixed-media contributions from Edward Ruscha (Chocolate smear by the artist), Dan Graham, Bernadette Mayer, Vito Acconci, Madeline Gins, Arakawa, Hannah Weiner, Robert Lax et al. Second Assembling (1971) features the work of Jochen Gerz, Davi Det Hompson, Clemente Padin, Alan Sondheim and Nicholas Zurbrugg et al. Third Assembling (1972), which was collated and bound by an anonymous fireman and his family, includes contributions from artists such as John Baldessari, John Furnival, Roni Hoffman, Elizabet Ginsberg, Ruth Krauss and Joseph Phillips. Fourth Assembling (1973) contains work by: Jean-Jacques Cory, Wally Depew, Dick Higgins, Nancy Henderson, Mad Dog et al. Fifth Assembling (1975) features artistic contributions by Eric Anderson, Bruce Andrews, Scott Hyde, Shoichi Kiyokawa, Thomas Macauley, Jonathan Price and Karl Young among many others. Sixth Assembling features works by Bob Aab, Anna Banana, A.F. Caldiero, Robin Crozier, Veronica Drew, Bill Gaglione & Tim Mancusi, Joe Johnson etc. Seventh Assembling features contributions by, among others, Rene Aeberhard, Bruce Andrews and Eduardo Ballerini. Eighth Assembling (1978) was split into two (A-J) and (K-Z) and includes avant-garde contributions from artists such as Charlton Burgh, Charles Ewert, Michael Gibbs and Richard Grayson in the first, and Valery Oisteanu, Douglas Turnbaugh and Nancy Wolf in the second. Ninth Assembly (1979) constitutes a 'critical' anthology. Tenth Assembling features contributions by Allan Coleman, Bonnie Donohue, Rimma & Valery Gerlovin and Tom Persons. Eleventh Assembling (1981), subtitled "Pilot Proposals" includes contributions by Agnes Denes, Bern Porter and Richard Meltzer, among others. Signed by Author(s).

paperback. Condition: very good(+). Ruscha, Ed (illustrator). First. Illustrated with 14 photos, followed by a large number of blank pages. 16mo, (5 1/2 x 7 inches), slim plain black glossy wrappers (very light edgewear; 1 page dog-eared). Hollywood: Heavy Industries, 1971. First edition. A very good(+) copy. First and only edition -- one of 3900 copies. Ruscha's 13th book, signed by him on the front free flyleaf.

Spiral bound. Condition: Near fine in wraps. Fourth Edition. 17 x 24cm near fine, spiral bound volume with black and white reproductions depicting what happens when Ed Ruscha, Mason Williams and Patrick Blackwell perform and document a Consumer Reports-style crash test involving a Royal manual typewriter ejected from a 1963 Buick LeSabre traveling at ninety miles per hour along US Highway 91. Signed on the front free end paper by Ed Ruscha: 'Best wishes Andrew, Ed Ruscha'.

First edition, first issue of Ruscha's self-published 27-foot accordion-folded photographic panorama of the iconic Los Angeles boulevard, a milestone in the history of artistâs books. First issue with a small flap as the final leaf. Octavo, original publisher's white wrappers with titles printed in silver to the spine and front panel, single accordion-folded panorama of both sides of the iconic Sunset Strip printed with offset lithography, opens to a length of 27 feet. Association copy, inscribed by the artist in the year of publication on the copyright page, "Merry Christmas Paton and Tillie! Ed Ruscha 1966." The recipient, actor and director Paton Price played a major role in developing Hollywood talents including Kirk Douglas, Jason Robards, and Jean Seburg. His directing credits include several episodes of "77 Sunset Strip," which ran from 1958-1964. He also directed episodes of Maverick (1961), Surfside 6 (1961) and The Partridge Family (1972). In very good condition with some bumping to the spine. Housed in the original publisher's foil-covered slipcase which is in very good condition. A very nice example, rare in this condition. In the 1960s, Ed Ruscha more or less reinvented the artist's book. By turning away from the craftsmanship and luxury status that typified the livre d'artiste in favor of the artistic idea or concept, expressed simply through photographs and text, Ruscha opened the genre to the possibilities of mass-production and distribution. The 27-foot length of the accordion-folded Every Building on the Sunset Strip affords the viewer two continuous photographic views of the mile and a half section of this landmark stretch of Sunset, one for each side of one of the city's landmark thoroughfare" (The Getty Research Institute). Roth 101; Parr & Badger, Photobook II.

Soft cover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. [Los Angeles]: Edward Ruscha, 1970. First edition. Softcover in original glassine, [48]pp., 7 x 5.5 inches. Boldly signed by Ruscha in gutter margin of first page. Features 25 black and white photographic illustrations accompanied by the address of each property. Limited to four thousand unnumbered copies, printed by G.R. Huttner Lithography, Burbank, CA. Near Fine, smallest spot to fore-edge, else fine. Near Fine glassine, slightest toning to spine and extremities, 0.25 inch chip to base of spine. Signed by Author(s).

Softcover artist book with faux wood grain covers mounted with photograph on front cover; bound with a leather tie; 32 pages with both artists business cards stapled to rear cover and the Bengston card crumpled as intended; signed by Ruscha and initialed by Bengston in pen on the front cover; very good condition; except small tears to spine to left of both string ties; light edgewear to covers. Foreign shipping may be extra.

Condition: Near fine. First Edition. Signed first and only edition of Ruscha and Bengston's collaborative book. BUSINESS CARDS, Ruscha explained in a later interview with Trina Mitchum, "started as a joke but then we decided to go through with it [.] We had a dinner at the Bistro in Beverly Hills and after dinner we had a very dramatic business card exchange which Larry Bell photographed with his Polaroid and good judgment. Later the book of photographs came out." 8.5'' x 5.5''. Original faux wood-grain wrappers tied with knotted leather cord, hand-bound by artists. Black and white photograph mounted to front cover. Edition of 1000 copies. Signed by Ruscha and Bengston on front cover. 21 photographic illustrations. Two cards stapled to final leaf as issued; Bengston's card slightly crumpled, also as issued. Embossment of art consultant Aldis Browne to front free endpaper. Light edgewear and rubbing to wrappers. Else bright and sound. Signed.

Condition: Fine. Signed second edition of Ruscha's second artist's book, an enigmatic series of controlled burns in the human landscape. The fifteen yellow-tinted fires of VARIOUS SMALL FIRES are man-made, mostly domesticated and indoors, mostly under control: a gas stove, a welder's torch, a cigarette lighter, a cigar - with just a few blurred, unidentifiable snapshots of flames on a sidewalk, by a car, in the dark, whose purpose and safety are unknown. Ruscha stressed the subject if what is important, not the photographer: "I went to a stock photograph place and looked for pictures of fires, there were none. It is not important who took the photos, it is a matter of convenience, purely" (quoted in Coplans). One of Ruscha's most confounding books, it is uncommon signed. 7'' x 5.5''. Original black and white printed wrappers. Edition of 3000 unnumbered copies. 16 photographs. [48] pages. Signed by Ruscha in pencil on front free endpaper. PROVENANCE: From the collection of longtime MIT Press editor Roger Conover, who published several books by and about Ruscha. Minor edgewear. Signed.

Condition: Fine. First printing. Signed first edition of Ruscha's last solo photobook to use the minimal 'house style' made famous by TWENTYSIX GASOLINE STATIONS and other early works. The 25 black and white photographs of REAL ESTATE OPPORTUNITIES frequently include "For Sale" signs, recalling Ruscha's early life as an aspiring commercial artist who "learned sign-painting techniques and painted many commercial signs, including For Sale signs" (Phillpot). Properties pictured, captioned with their addresses, include houses, residential lots, and forlorn stretches of barren land whose only neighbors are the telephone poles and roads of southern California. Uncommon signed. 7'' x 5.5''. Original white printed wrappers. Lacking glassine jacket. Edition of 4,000 unnumbered copies. 25 black and white photographic illustrations. [48] pages. Signed by Ruscha in pencil on front free endpaper. PROVENANCE: From the collection of longtime MIT Press editor Roger Conover, who published several books by and about Ruscha. Minimal edgewear. Signed.

Condition: Near fine. First printing. Signed first edition of these black and white photographs of 30 selected records and album covers from Ruscha's collection, photographed by his friend and fellow artist Jerry McMillan. Like Ruscha's previous books, RECORDS is concerned with words and texts, though the presentation of words "on" images here is distinct from Ruscha's previous documentation of words "in" images (Phillpot): shown against a blank white background, the printed texts on these album covers and records exist on circles and squares, objects alone without a landscape. Uncommon signed. 7'' x 5.5''. Original red embossed paper wrappers. 60 black and white plates. Edition of 2000 copies. Signed by Ruscha on front free endpaper. PROVENANCE: From the collection of longtime MIT Press editor Roger Conover, who published several books by and about Ruscha. Touches of edgewear, very slight foxing to fore-edge.Else bright and sharp. Signed.

First edition. Signed first edition, second issue of this quintessentially Los Angeles book, one of the great photobooks of all time - with the original wrap-around band intact. Ruscha's fourth book, and arguably his finest, captures the Sunset Strip at a particular moment in time. A monumental and continuous accordion-fold that opens to more than 25 feet, Ruscha documents - as the title suggests - the entirety of the Strip, with even-numbered addresses running along the top of the page and odd facing opposite along the bottom. "The effect is less like the fluid cinematic pan [.] than a series of jolting jump cuts [.] a ragged progression of gas stations, motels, apartment houses, parking lots, strip-malls, and honky-tonk signage" (Parr 182). A beautiful example of a notoriously fragile production. 7'' x 5.5''. Accordion-fold printed recto only and mounted in printed wrappers. Housed in original silver Mylar foil-covered slipcase with intact original plain white paper band. Signed by Ruscha along bottom edge of slipcase. PROVENANCE: From the collection of longtime MIT Press editor Roger Conover, who published several books by and about Ruscha. Spine lightly creased, with some unobtrusive glue offsetting to cover folds from slipcase, as common. Faintest crease to lower corner of last page. Light chipping and toning to edges of paper band. Near fine in near fine slipcase. Signed.

Condition: Near fine in near fine jacket. Dust Jacket Condition: dj. First printing. Signed first edition of Ruscha's photo-novel, illustrating a 1967 short story by Mason Williams, "How To Derive The Maximum Enjoyment From Crackers." Printed in full on the rear dust jacket flap, Williams's directions for a semi-surrealist sexual humiliation comedy are faithfully acted out by Larry Bell, Leon Bing, Rudi Gernreich, and Tommy Smothers, and photographed by Ken Price, Joe Goode, and Ruscha. Ruscha would use the same source material and the same cast for his 1971 short film, "Premium," explaining: "See, it was a movie best of all, but first it was a book. It was a book that was a movie fallen short." Scarce signed. 8.75'' x 6''. Original chipboard wrappers. In original red and white printed dust jacket. [240] pages. Black and white photographic illustrations. Signed by Ruscha on front free endpaper. PROVENANCE: From the collection of longtime MIT Press editor Roger Conover, who published several books by and about Ruscha. Light edgewear and touches of chipping to jacket. Else clean and bright. Signed.

Condition: Fine. First printing. Signed first edition of Ruscha and Weiner's photo-novel, starring Shelley Chamberlain, Suzanne Chandler, and Susan Haller in a captivatingly oblique visual drama. The last of Ruscha's artist's books and one of only a few to admit a plausibly narrative reading, HARD LIGHT is also Ruscha's broadest collaboration: with Lawrence Weiner, credited as co-author, but also with Chamberlain, Chandler, and Haller, who, like actors in motion pictures, cannot help but interpret the direction given to them, and who drink coffee, wear jeans, and drive cars like the stars they are. (Haller is also noted as a third photographer by Engberg & Phillpot, though not in the book's sparse credits.) Buquet strains to see a "barely veiled reference to feminist demands" and potential "derisive" dialogue with Lynda Benglis, while Ruscha himself, interviewed while in the process of making the book, said only "We went out and got a few girls and shot some pictures." Critics are cautious and the author silent, but the book speaks. Uncommon signed. 7'' x 5''. Original glossy color wrappers. 65 photographic illustrations by Ruscha, Weiner, and Susan Haller. [120] pages. Signed by Ruscha in pen on front free endpaper. PROVENANCE: From the collection of longtime MIT Press editor Roger Conover, who published several books by and about Ruscha. Trace edgewear. Else clean, bright, and sharp. Signed.

Softcover. Condition: Poor. First Edition. [externally in pretty bad shape (see images and notes), with part of the front cover torn (or eaten) away, and general overall soiling and discoloration; the binding, however, is intact, and the internals are perfectly OK]. (B&W photographs) Here, my friends, we have that most lamentable and problematic of objects: a unique and highly collectable item that we must honestly acknowledge is in distinctly uncollectable condition -- the very sort of thing that the overworked verbal shrug "it is what it is" was coined to describe. And yet -- and yet -- there's no denying that it IS a thing, and quite a thing at that: an INSCRIBED copy of the FIRST printing of renowned artist Ed Ruscha's iconic first book, published under his own imprint in a numbered edition of just 400 copies (this being No. 87). The work itself is not "rare" -- there was a second edition (500 copies, 1967) and a third (a whopping 3,000 copies, 1969) -- and if your only ambition is to own a "nice" copy of this famous and influential work, well, heck, you might not even have to spend yourself into the four figures, and you'll still be one-up on the Library of Congress, which famously and politely rejected and returned the copy that Ed himself sent them in 1963, and to this day does not own a copy of any edition. (A not-too-subtle lack of respect for the 1960s L.A. art scene at play, maybe?) Anyway, those later printings are also "what they are" -- but THIS copy, for all its manifest depredations, is in a very rarefied class, having been INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the artist/author/photographer (in the year of publication, no less), as follows: "For / Sonny / From / Ed / 1963." The inscription has been authenticated by Mr. Ruscha himself, in an email exchange with our consignor in the Fall of 2022; a printed copy of these emails will be provided along with the book. Unfortunately, though, he couldn't recall, almost 60 years after the fact, who this "Sonny" was. It's fun to speculate that the inscribee might have been one of the notable Sonnys of American History -- Bono, Barger, Tufts, Jurgensen, and Liston come readily to mind -- but lacking any hard evidence, that's just a whole lotta wishful thinking. (And anyway, "Sonny" is about as common and all-American a nickname as you can find: even my little Nebraska hometown, population 900-something, had three or four Sonnys.) I have my own theory (although that's all it is), based on a comment of Ruscha's in a 1965 interview: "I showed the first book to a gasoline station attendant. He was amused." So I think that "Sonny" might well have been just such a pump jockey -- maybe even that very one -- possibly at one of the artist's regular fill-'er-up stops at the L.A. end of the California-to-Oklahoma journey that his book photographically traces. He might have been one of the Sons at the "Brown & Sons" APCO station in Oklahoma City, or maybe the guy who checked Ed's oil at the station that he depicted in his famous 1963 painting "Standard Station, Amarillo, Texas" (subsequently rendered as a widely-distributed print). Or -- to really play out the art-world fantasy -- maybe Sonny was the day-shift man at the famous "Double Standard" station, at the five-way intersection on the western edge of West Hollywood, that Dennis Hopper so memorably photographed (also circa 1963) -- which would make Ed's painting and Dennis's photo visual second cousins (or something like that). This is all wildly conjectural, of course -- but look at the poor little thing! Can we easily dismiss the idea that this shamefully mishandled copy of "Twentysix Gasoline Stations" might well have been stored IN a gas station for a few decades, possibly fallen behind an oil drum or lost beneath a pile of greasy rags? Maybe our man Sonny got fed up with the gas-pumping racket, stuffed his handful of belongings into a beat-up cardboard suitcase, lit out for Hawaii (where this copy was discovered by our consignor), and lived happily ever after as a surf-riding beach bum. It's unlikely that we'll ever know for sure, but you have to admit that none of these riffs are outside the realm of possibility. (It might as well be noted, too, that not a hell of a lot of copies of the first edition appear to have been signed at all; of the handful that have sold at auction in the last few decades -- at prices higher than we're asking here -- none have borne any authorial scribbling.) Better still, if you take possession of this unique copy, you will also assume custody of The Mystery of Sonny. If you can uncover the backstory, bully for you; but if not, you can just take my approach and make up your own. So to come full circle: "it is what it is" -- which is, in any event, a miracle of survival.