“Books & Co.” presents Ruscha’s books together with those of more than 70 contemporary artists from all over the world—from Russia to Japan to the Netherlands—who have responded directly and diversely to his inspiration. Some of the books are installed so that viewers can browse their pages.

In fact, Yoshikazu Suzuki´s Ginza Strip predated Ruscha´s Sunset Strip by 12 years or so.

Inspired by the unassuming books that he found in street stalls during a trip to Europe, in 1962 Ruscha published his first artist book, Twentysix Gasoline Stations under his own imprint, National Excelsior Press. A slim, cheaply produced volume, then priced at $3.50, Twentysix Gasoline Stations is exactly what its title suggests: twenty-six photographs of gas stations with captions indicating their brand and location, just like works of art. Initially, the book met with poor reception, and was even rejected by the Library of Congress for its “unorthodox form and supposed lack of information.” However, over time it acquired cult status, and by the 1980s it was hailed as one of the first truly modern artist books. Ruscha followed this up with a succession of similarly self-evident and deadpan books, including Some Los Angeles Apartments (1965), Nine Swimming Pools and a Broken Glass(1968), and Real Estate Opportunities (1970), all of which combined the literalness of early California pop art with a photographic aesthetic informed by minimalist sequence and seriality, shot through with a wry sense of humor.

Participating artists include Amanny Ahmad, Pascal Anders, Edgar Arceneaux, Ben Barretto, Eric Baskauskas, Doro Boehme, Jeff Brouws, Denise Scott Brown, Joanna Brown, Wendy Burton, Corinne Carlson, Dan Colen, Julie Cook, Kim Corbel, Claudia de la Torre, Jen DeNike, Eric Doeringer, Frank Eye, Thomas Galler, Anne-Valérie Gasc, Steve Giasson, Oliver Griffin, Daniel S. Guy, Dejan Habicht, Marcella Hackbardt, Sebastian Hackenschmidt, Karen Henderson, Mishka Henner, Trevor Hernandez, Kai-Olaf Hesse, Marla Hlady, Dominik Hruza, Steven Izenour, Sveinn Fannar Jóhannsson, Gregory Eddie Jones, Rinata Kajumova, Shohachi Kimura, Hubert Kretschmer, Sowon Kwon, Tanja Lazetic, Gabriel Lester, Jochen Manz, Michael Maranda, Scott McCarney, Jerry McMillan, Dan Monick, Jonathan Monk, Simon Morris, Maurizio Nannucci , Bruce Nauman, John O’Brian, Stefan Oláh, Michalis Pichler, Tadej Pogačar, Susan Porteous, Clara Prioux, Joseph Putrock, Hassan Rahim, Achim Riechers, Craig Ritchie, Tom Sachs, Joachim Schmid, Andreas Schmidt, Jean-Frédéric Schnyder, David Schoerner, Yann Sérandour, Travis Shaffer, Izet Sheshivari, Tom Sowden, Derek Sullivan, Yoshikazu Suzuki, Aggie Toppins, Louisa Van Leer, Robert Venturi, and Hermann Zschiegner.

Opening reception: Thursday, March 12th, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm