Ed Ruscha. Dutch Details

Deventer, Stichting Octopus, 1971. First edition, scarce Ruscha publication. Only an estimated amount of 200 copies survived the original print run of 3000. Most of the edition was discarded from the printer's warehouse. Oblong cardboard wrappers, 11 x 38 cm, 2 sheets with title and introduction, and nine double pages, folding out to 11 x 76 cm, featuring 104 offset printed b/w photographs. Covers with toning and moderate soiling, as usual with this item, else in very good condition.

Ruscha was commissioned to make the book in conjunction with Sonsbeek 71, an international exhibition in the Netherlands curated by Wim Beeren. He executed the project in several small villages in the North of the country, photographing facades along canals, showing 5 to 6 images of the same location, getting closer and more into detail in every picture. The photos were taken 'only at bridge-locations and the bridges themselves used as a walkway by the artist to take the pictures with a hand-held camera' (from the introduction text).