Nine Swimming Pools and a Broken Glass

Artist Edward Ruscha (American, born 1937)

Publisher Edward Ruscha, [Los Angeles], 1976 (1st ed. 1968)

Date1976 (1968 first edition)

DimensionsBook: H: 7 in. (178 mm); W: 5 1/2 in. (140 mm); Depth: 1/4 in. (7 mm).
Page: H: 7 in. (178 mm); W: 5 3/8 in. (137 mm).

MediumReproductions: 10 photolithographs of photographs in color on coated white paper. Text: photolithography in blue.

ClassificationBooks

Credit LineGift of Molly and Walter Bareiss

Object number

1984.954

Not on View

Label TextEdward Ruscha Various Small Fires and Milk (1970, 1st ed. was 1964) Some Los Angeles Apartments (1970, 1st ed. was 1965) Every Building on the Sunset Strip (1966) Nine Swimming Pools and a Broken Glass (1976, 1st ed. was 1968) Edward Ruscha is an influential voice in American painting and one of the most significant contemporary American graphic artists. In 1962 he published a small paperback called Twentysix Gasoline Stations. This project created a new paradigm for interactions between the artist, the book, and the audience. Ruscha didn’t illustrate a text by another writer; he constructed a linear sequence of photo images enclosed in a book. This book was nothing like the limited-edition luxury books produced in the early part of the 20th century. Ruscha’s books were cheap, small, and mass-produced. Ruscha wanted this and later books to be similar to commercial publications. “I am not trying to create a precious limited edition book, but a mass-produced product of high order. All my books are identical. They have none of the nuances of the hand-made and crafted limited edition book.” Ruscha used common book-trade techniques and printed in large editions to make this form of art inexpensive and available to a large number of people. In Ruscha’s books we can see his ability to interpret the sprawl of Los Angeles, evoking presence and absence through photographic repetition. It is fitting that the sequence of images in these books is reminiscent of cinematic film.