Signed first edition, second issue of this quintessentially Los Angeles book, one of the great photobooks of all time — with the original wrap-around band intact.
Near fine in near fine slipcase.
Price: $7,500.00
"Not only the most physically ambitious of Ruscha's books, but the most flamboyant." — Parr & Badger
Ruscha's fourth book, and arguably his finest, captures the Sunset Strip at a particular moment in time. A monumental and continuous accordion-fold that opens to more than 25 feet, Ruscha documents — as the title suggests — the entirety of the Strip, with even-numbered addresses running along the top of the page and odd facing opposite along the bottom. "The effect is less like the fluid cinematic pan […] than a series of jolting jump cuts […] a ragged progression of gas stations, motels, apartment houses, parking lots, strip-malls, and honky-tonk signage" (Parr 182). A beautiful example of a notoriously fragile production.
Read more: Parr & Badger, The Photobook: A History, II; Roth, The Book of 101 Books; Engberg & Phillpot, Catalogue Raisonné, B4.
First edition. (Los Angeles): Edward Ruscha, 1966. 7'' x 5.5''. Accordion-fold printed recto only and mounted in printed wrappers. Housed in original silver Mylar foil-covered slipcase with intact original plain white paper band. Signed by Ruscha along bottom edge of slipcase. PROVENANCE: From the collection of longtime MIT Press editor Roger Conover, who published several books by and about Ruscha. Spine lightly creased, with some unobtrusive glue offsetting to cover folds from slipcase, as common. Faintest crease to lower corner of last page. Light chipping and toning to edges of paper band.
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Type Punch Matrix is a Washington D.C.-area rare book firm founded by Rebecca Romney and Brian Cassidy.
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