Twentysix Gasoline Stations

Ed Ruscha, publisher-artist.

Abstract

In the 1960s the book appeared as a new and revolutionary art format. Conceptual artists, concrete poets, or the FLUXUS movement found in publishing, photocopies and books a workspace free of any power structure and that allowed, by eliminating the single commercial object, to democratize art. But occupying or parasitizing an industry such as publishing and printing was not only about using its means and tools, but also about developing new strategies and ways of doing things where editorial design, graphic design and printing techniques replaced traditional techniques. traditional arts such as painting, drawing or sculpture. For them, not all books could be considered works of art, but only those in which there was an intrinsic relationship between content and form, that is, the book format. The book Twentysix Gasoline Stations by Ed Ruscha was one of those books that represented a paradigm shift, both from the point of view of the emergence of a new work format and the definition of a new way of understanding the profession of artist.