Ed Ruscha's "Ribbon Words" series represents a fascinating and distinctive period in his artistic career, spanning from the late 1960s to the early 1970s. These works are characterized by their imaginative approach to text, rendering words as if they were three-dimensional objects made from ribbons. Ruscha employed a sophisticated trompe l’oeil technique to achieve this effect, utilizing materials such as graphite, gunpowder, pastels, stencils, and tape. The accidental discovery of gunpowder as a medium allowed Ruscha to experiment with its application on paper, using cotton balls and Q-tips to manipulate the substance into the fibers of the paper to create these unique word objects (Artsy) (Edward Tyler Nahem Fine Art).
Ruscha's ribbon texts are not just visual representations of words; they are intricate works that invite interpretation and contemplation. The words depicted in these works range from the mundane to the evocative, each chosen for its visual and conceptual potential. These pieces evoke the quality of silent films and have been likened to neon signs, sculptures, and urban landscapes, reflecting Ruscha's wide range of influences, including architecture, signage, pop culture, and the everyday life of Los Angeles, where he has spent much of his career (Artsy).
This series underscores Ruscha's interest in the interplay between language and imagery, a theme that has pervaded his work across different mediums. Ruscha himself has expressed a fascination with the transformation of words into pictures and back again, highlighting the fluid relationship between textual and visual forms of expression. The ribbon words fit seamlessly within Ruscha's broader oeuvre, which spans painting, printmaking, photography, and film, demonstrating his versatility as an artist and his continual exploration of the boundaries between word and image (Edward Tyler Nahem Fine Art).
The "Ribbon Words" exhibition, curated by Dieter Buchhart, brought together a significant collection of these works, drawing from both private collections and public institutions. Accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with essays by notable authors, the exhibition offered a comprehensive look at one of the most compelling aspects of Ruscha's body of work, reaffirming his position as a key figure in contemporary art (Edward Tyler Nahem Fine Art).