Ruscha Business Cards

RUSCHA, Ed. Business Cards. Hollywood, CA. Heavy Industry Publications. 1968.
From the edition limited to 1,000 copies. This copy inscribed by Ruscha on initial blank: "at dthe dthone ... dthe dtime weel bee ....".'Of all Ruscha's books, whether solo or collaborative, Business Cards is the least formal in its design. The wood-grain paper cover with its mounted photo and leather-knotted binding immediately signals a different kind of book. Inside, the teatment of the pages is deliberately, even refreshingly, scrappy, though it echoes Ruscha's predilections regarding layout. Like Royal Road test, this collaboration is also a story, telling how Ruscha and Bengston designed business cards for one another, and how they finally exchanged them.' [Engberg & Phillpot - Ed Ruscha Editions, B7].

8vo. pp. 32 (14 pages with 21 photographic illustrations, 6 text pages, 9 blank pages, 1 page with business card and reproduction of photograph stapled to paper, title page, copyright page). Bengston's business card is crumpled as in each copy of the book as a nod to the 'Dento' series of paintings he did in the 1960s. Original faux wood-grain paper wrappers, bound by knotted single leather lace running through two drilled holes. Black-and-white photograph mounted onto front cover, with the signatures of both Ruscha and Billy Al Bengston (signed B.A.B.) also on front cover.

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