Edward Ruscha

An excellent example of multiple bookworks are the books of Edward Ruscha. In 1963 his book Twenty-Six Gasoline Stations 1962 was published. There were 400 numbered copies that cost about $3 each. They are also portable and pocket sized. The idea behind this was that theoretically 400 different people could experence his art at the same exact time, in completely different ways.

His second book, Various Small Fires and Milk was published in 1964. It also was an edition of 400 books and while not numbered, he signed the first 50 copies. He soon regretted this desicion saying that he wanted his books to be mass-produced objects, one indistinguishable from the next. He achieved this with his third book Some Los Angeles Apartments, self-published in 1965, it was an edition of 700 with no distinguishable marks. In 1967 and again in 1969 he destroyed any aura of preciousness surrounding his books by reprinting them. In 1967 he reprinted another 500 copies of his first book Twenty-Six Gasoline Stations 1962. Then in 1969 he printed 3,000 more, bringing the total to 3,900 copies.