Ed Ruscha | Every Building on the Sunset Strip | 1966 23.09. – 26.11.2017 | Fotomuseum Winterthur

SITUATION #93

Every Building on the Sunset Strip, offset print, leporello, 1966 © Ed Ruscha
Ed Ruscha, Every Building on the Sunset Strip, 1966, SITUATION #93, SITUATIONS/Immersive, installation view at Fotomuseum Winterthur, 2017 © Philipp Ottendörfer

In the mid-1960s Ed Ruscha launched what is surely his most famous publication under the title Every Building on the Sunset Strip. Using an automatic snapshot camera, he „scanned“ every topographical detail of the Sunset Strip between Beverly Hills and Laurel Canyon and then compiled the seeminlgy banal sequence of houses, shops and clubs into a 760 cm long leporello. His "expanded" book is one of a series of cheaply produced publications by this famous West Coast artist. His dry conceptual approach is reminiscent of the work of Hans-Peter Feldmann, who also self-published and sold his small books in Europe. These ephemeral artists‘ publications created a shift in the then accepted notions of photography, lending it impetus as an independent art form that should, in principle, be accessible to all. Available to the public for only a few dollars at the time, these works have now become rare and highly coveted collectors‘ items.


Kindly supported by Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne and Temperatio Foundation.