There is actually none of the books published by Ruscha in the 60ies, which has not been paraphrased yet, be it the Gas Stations (e.g. Jeff Brouws, Toby Mussmann, Eric Tabuchi, Michalis Pichler, Anonymus, Michael Maranda), the Fires (e.g. Bruce Nauman, Jonathan Monk, Yann Serandour, Thomas Galler), the Apartments (John O'Brian, Anne-Valerie Gasc, Eric Doehringer), the Parking Lots (Hermann Zschiegner, Travis Shaffer), the Swimming Pools (Jen Denike, Taro Hirano), the Real Estate Opportunities (Adam&Kate Davis, Eric Doehringer), the Royal Road Test (Tom Sachs, Simon Morris, Martha Hlady) or the Sunset Strip (J.F. Schnyder, Jonathan Monk, Derek Sullivan, Tom Sowden), even the Palm Trees (Tadej Pogocar, Eric van der Wejde), Colored People (Jonathan Monk, Tanja Lazetic) and Hard Light (Achim Riechers) have been taken up explicitly.The assembly attempts to span a larger arc of tension, integrate Ruscha's own books and put him into a evolution line in particular with the publications of Hiroshige and Hokusai, whose titles show great parallels in rhythm and use of numeric and vague enumerations.The missing link could be Yoshikazu Suzuki's GINZA HACCHO, buildings on Ginza, Tokyo, published as an accordion foldout book - in 1952, hence preceding Ruscha's Sunset Strip for 13 years- in the same street-view-style which was for very long considered essentially Ruscha. Published on occasion of a traveling show (Gallery P74/ Ljubljana, Arnolfini/ Bristol) curated by Michalis Pichler and Tom Sowden and copublished by Zavod P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E., Ljubljana and "greatest hits", Berlin. By now the appropriation and paraphrasing of Ed Ruscha constitutes a genre of its own. The first were 1968 Bruce Nauman with 'Burning Small Fires' and 1971 'Ed Ruscha' (actually Joel Fisher) with 'Six Hands and a Cheese Sandwich', with further appropriations or hommages over the decades, and in the last years it almost became fashionable, the evidence is massive.This little booklet is the first and most extensive sourcebook, featuring an extensive bibliography with more than 100 entries.

Paradoxically, many of the cheap books produced in editions of 1000s in the 1960s and '70s are now very collectible, and expensive, items today. A seminal example of this is the American artist Ed Ruscha (b.1937) who has produced several editions of book works since the early 1970s. His definite style, seen in titles such as "Twentysix Gasoline Stations", has been referred and copied by many artists making books today, so much so that an exhibition, "Follow-Ed (after Hokusai)", of about 100 examples, curated by Tom Sowden and Michalis Pichler, is currently touring venues alongside some of Ruscha's original books.Sarah Bowden in "From Fluxus to iPad": A very short history of artists' books", Cassone, The International Online Magazine of Art and Art Books