Hand Showing Book Cover

Description

Groundbreaking conceptual artist Ed Ruscha became known for photobooks depicting mundane American subjects in series: palm trees, swimming pools, parking lots. Here a hand, belonging to fellow artist Joe Goode, holds the first of these books, Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1963), whose title mimics Ruscha’s deadpan “what you see is what you get” approach to image making. Even though the volume is slim and filled with two-dimensional images, this photograph brings out its sculptural quality.

Hand Showing Book Cover

Ed Ruscha

1963

Accession Number

202895

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Dimensions

Image: 24.1 × 19.5 cm (9 1/2 × 7 11/16 in.); Paper: 25.3 × 20.3 cm (10 × 8 in.)

Classification

photograph

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Gift of the artist