Ed Ruscha (b. 1937)
Dutch Details (Engberg B14)
The rare complete book, comprising 116 offset lithographs, 1971, from the edition of 3000 of which only approximately 200 are extant, each on wove paper, published by Stichting Octopus, Netherlands, overall 110 x 380 x 10mm (4 ½ x 15 x 1/4in) (vol)

Wim Beeren, the commissioner of the Sonsbeek 71 international festival, invited Ruscha to produce a photobook in conjunction with the upcoming exhibition in 1971. Beeren chose the location for the photobook, Stadskanaal-a small canal-side village in Groningen, the Netherlands-however he left all other specifications up to the artist.
Undoubtedly building on the panorama of Los Angeles he had completed for his book Every Building on the Sunset Strip (1966), Ruscha began once again to photograph the facades of houses onsite. However the topography of the village ultimately demanded a more performative and visceral approach from the artist, who found himself journeying back and forth across the bridges of the canal in order to capture the houses along it. He documented each trip with six photographs, which progress from a distance shot to a close-up view of a house directly across both sides of each chosen bridge.
Ruscha presented these images in an oversized horizontal format, with each leaf within the photobook folding out to reveal two sequences of photographs from each journey across a single bridge. This presentation, interestingly, is completely unique in the artist's oeuvre. The book itself was initially intended to be an open edition, with 3,000 printed in preparation for the exhibition. However it ultimately did not sell well, with only approximately 200 sold through mail order. The printer decided to remove all extra copies from the warehouse and destroy them, making this the rarest of Ruscha's books.