This book was published on the occasion of two concurrent exhibitions by Ed Ruscha at Gagosian—Says I, to Myself, Says I at Davies Street, London, and Talking Doorways at rue de Ponthieu, Paris. Says I, to Myself, Says I presented paintings on raw, unprimed linen that feature words underlined with tapering black shapes and sometimes juxtaposed with other painted passages and symbols. The paintings in Talking Doorways represent empty rooms where painted phrases cross thresholds, trailed by linear bands that suggest both beams of light and the soundwaves of speech.

Binding two exhibition catalogues together in opposite orientations, the tête-bêche format includes a front cover, plates, installation photography, and a checklist for each show. An enclosed booklet contains an essay by Christian House tracing the connections between these exhibitions and the work of the Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershøi, as well as an interview between Ruscha and explorer Erling Kagge about silence, slowness, and the self-discovery that worldly exploration can nurture.