Ed Ruscha Paintings

Published on the occasion of the exhibition, May 10 - June 15, 2002, Gagosian Gallery, New York. Includes essay, "Bones in the Ice Cream," by Adam Gopnik.In a series the artist calls "mirror paintings", the stylized mountains, painted with their reflection, are emblazoned with palindromes and idiosyncratic witticisms such as "SEX AT NOON TAXES" and "SOLO GIGOLOS." The landscape and the text create a double-entendre, where the painting and its text mirror each other in a visual pun. The exhibition also includes a series of "fictional paintings" with anecdotes and imagined characters that offer a glimpse of seemingly mundane events.