Ed Ruscha is an American artist who combines image, symbol, and text to create his own signature style. The result is a singular vision of the American landscape that shows how language–both visual and literal–alter human perception. City, 1992 is “a surreal juxtaposition of language and image; the convergence of the American landscape in all its glory and banality with the tropes of its popular culture.” City, 1992, exemplifies Ruscha’s formula, combining serene, almost uncanny landscapes with a bold statement. “Still, the extremely rare use of wooden dowels to form the eponymous words placed across the work’s surface sets it apart from almost any other in his oeuvre. Only eight of his paintings include the use of wooden dowels with City being the very first of this series. In classic Ruscha fashion, the word, its physical construction, and its backdrop exist in improbable, enigmatic harmony. The pastoral background and the rods of wood saddled upon it suggest the origin of the man-made world imposed upon its natural environs” (Excerpt courtesy of Edward Tyler Nayhem).

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