Business Cards.

Ruscha's seventh book, inscribed: 'Best Regards Billy Al Bengston / Howdy Ed Ruscha.

While most copies of this title were signed discreetly by Ruscha and initialed by Bengston, this is the first we've seen with such prominent signatures by both artists in the same pen.

The idea for this collaboration between Ed Ruscha and his friend Billy Al Bengston was that they would each design a business card for the other, which they would then exchange at a dinner party on a given date. Business cards contains photographs documenting the process from conception through to the exchange. "The project pokes fun at the seriousness with which corporate identities are designed, while at the same time taking a jab at the art world as a place of business, where artists don ties and jackets and require professional identification' (Wolf, S., Ed Ruscha and Photography p177).

First edition, presentation copy inscribed by Ruscha and Bengston in the same pen; (216 x 139 mm; 8 3/4 x 5 1/2 in); 21 black & white photographs by Ken Price and Larry Bell; loose sheets inserted into original faux wood card wrappers with original rawhide ties, black & white photograph mounted to upper side with photo corners, two business cards stapled to last page, light wear and minor creasing to extremities, an excellent copy; [32]pp.

Engberg & Phillpot, Edward Ruscha: Editions 1959-1999. Catalogue Raisonne (B3); The Book of 101 Books: Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century pp182-5; The Open Book: A History of the Photographic Book from 1878 to the Present pp198-9; The Photobook: A History II, pp142-3.