Every building on the Sunset Strip

Ed Ruscha
Every building on the Sunset Strip

Photographs: Ed Ruscha

Publisher: Self-published

Year: 1966

Comments: Hardcover leporello. Offset lithograph on paper in silver Mylar-covered box, 186 x 146 mm. First edition with the extra flap on the last page, 1966. Copy in very good 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 25-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 viewer may want to know that for this book, Ed Ruscha reappropriated Ginza Kaiwai/Ginza Haccho by Yoshikazu Suzuki & Kimura Shohachi, photobook presented views of Tokyo's Ginza district.