Origins of Twentysix Gasoline Stations
Ruscha would drive home to visit his parents in Oklahoma four or five times a year after leaving home at 18; many of the journeys were taken with his friend and fellow artist Joe Goode.
"I wasn't coming out here to do anything in particular, or to be anything in particular except...except out of Oklahoma...a long way from Oklahoma, that's what I wanted to be, and everything it stood for. And away from the catholic church too, and Sister Daniella who beat my knuckles with a pencil the one year I was in parochial school." Ed Ruscha
Ruscha had visited Europe in 1961, and been particularly taken by the books he saw for sale 'on the street, in those little bookstalls,' and been impressed by the 'non-commercial look... a strange kind of sober design including the typography and the binding and everything.' Back in Los Angeles, he conceived the idea initially as a play on words, deciding upon the title first, then working on the typography and design before taking the photographs. He took about 60 photographs, and edited them down to 26 by removing any that he felt were too interesting.
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