The bookworks of Los Angeles artist Ed Ruscha are among the most influential works of art of the late 1960s and early 1970s. His photographic books documented typologies such as all the buildings on Sunset Strip or L.A. gas stations. The books ask us to consider the vernacular built environment as an index of contemporary society. Ruscha’s conceptual, serial approach to his subject was important to a generation of Vancouver artists including Jeff Wall, Ian Wallace and Christos Dikeakos.

The exhibition of the bookworks is curated by architect George Wagner, who first organized the exhibition for the School of Design at Harvard University. Professor Wagner is interested in the books as a sociology of everyday architecture.