Hand Showing Book Cover

Groundbreaking conceptual artist Ed Ruscha became known for photobooks depicting mundane American subjects in series: palm trees, swimming pools, parking lots. Here a hand, belonging to fellow artist Joe Goode, holds the first of these books, Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1963), whose title mimics Ruscha’s deadpan “what you see is what you get” approach to image making. Even though the volume is slim and filled with two-dimensional images, this photograph brings out its sculptural quality.