They Called Her Styrene, Etc.

Assembled in the form of a thick block, this book reproduces approximately 600 "word" drawings, paintings and works on paper by the Los Angeles-based American artist Edward Ruscha (b. 1937). The result is a sort of novel without an obvious plot, a series of words with no narrative.

Ruscha began making prints and drawings consisting of one word on an often monochromatic, abstract background in the late 1950s and has continued to explore the language-based imagery that has become a hallmark of his work.

Pulling elements from the visual language of advertising and commercial art, he has made hundreds of "word" prints, drawings, and paintings that exhibit an interplay between bold letters and shaded backgrounds.

Some of the works consist of only one word - "great", "mud", "trust"; others of short combinations or phrases - "Indeed I do", "She sure knew her devotionals" and "They called her Styrene".