This is the exhibition catalog for the show, VERY: Works from the UBS Collection, at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in 2018. Mary Rozell, Global Head of the UBS Art Collection describes the featured works (also reproduced in the catalog): "The UBS Art Collection is fortunate to have fifty-six works by Ruscha, a concentration unsurpassed by that of any other artist. This group of Ruscha’s paintings, work on paper, and prints was assembled over the course of decades starting in the 1960s, a moment that marked both the genesis of the collection and the beginnings of the artist’s career."
One of the most iconic contemporary artists, Ed Ruscha's cool, stylized depictions of gas stations and other American archetypes are ingrained in the popular image of 1960s and 70s Los Angeles. Associated with Pop Art, his work frequently references the iconography of consumer culture and advertising, as well as views of the open road and sky.
A prominent place in the exhibition is devoted to Ruscha's more conceptual works depicting detached, often playful words and phrases (one lends the exhibition its title). Mary Rozell explains "Ruscha is best known for his deadpan, irreverent approach and his use of words as his subject—single, “head-scratching” words floating or receding, and later, groups of words forming phases. The artist was primarily interested in the word as object, the relationship between the visual and the verbal."
Hardcover, full color illustrations and with texts by Ulrich Korner, Mary Rozell, George Condo; and an interview with the artist by Anders Kold. 120 pages
Published by Hatje Kantz, 2018