Ed Ruscha: Psycho Spaghetti Westerns

This book was published on the occasion of the exhibition Ed Ruscha: Psycho Spaghetti Westerns at Gagosian, Beverly Hills. Created on canvases with a wide, horizontal format that suggest movie screens, the ten paintings in the show include meticulously developed representations of trash and detritus, either horizontally aligned with the picture plane or placed along steep diagonal groundlines. The decaying furniture, mattresses, tires, construction debris, cardboard boxes, and incidental trash dumped or precariously piled up in these paintings speak to themes of entropic decay and the wastefulness of throwaway culture. Fully illustrated with color plates and installation photography, the catalogue includes an essay by Russell Ferguson that introduces and contextualizes the series.