Every building on the sunset strip

Edward Ruscha
United States of America
16 December 1937

Every building on the sunset strip
1966
artist’s book: 54 pages (accordion folded), offset lithographs, in slip case of silver paper over board
Place made
Los Angeles, California, United States of America
Medium
artist’s book: 54 pages (accordion folded), offset lithographs, in slip case of silver paper over board
State
1st edition
Dimensions
18.0 x 14.4 x 0.8 cm (closed)
18.0 x 750.0 cm (open, extended)
Credit line
Gift of Grant Jorgensen through the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation 2017. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
Accession number
20176G161
Signature and date
Not signed. Dated, printed inside cover, black ink, "...1966".
Provenance
Acquired by Grant Jorgensen at a rare book dealer in New York City in 1976.
Media category
Print
Collection area
American prints
Copyright
© Ed Ruscha

  • Ed Ruscha’s practice combines elements of conceptualism and pop art. A painter, printmaker, and creator of artist’s books, he is known for his integration of everyday objects into art. His best-known works are his seventeen artist’s books, made between 1963 and 1978, the first of which was Twentysix gasoline stations.

    Created in the following year, Ruscha’s Every building on the sunset strip documents buildings on both sides of a section of Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. The unusual book was the result of Ruscha striving for a particular deadpan aesthetic, inspired by his 1961 visit to Paris. The design of the books he saw there was very different from American-made books. He noted: ‘They had some sort of odd, noncommercial look … a strange kind of sober design, including the typography and the binding and everything …’

    Maria Zagala, Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs

  • Ways of Seeing: Recent acquisitions from the collection

    Art Gallery of South Australia, 23 February 2019 – 22 April 2019
  • [Book] AGSA 500.