Ed Ruscha: Voice Mail White
Published by Hamilton Press, Ed Ruscha’s lithograph depicts the term “voice mail” as two distinct words, each in underscored black capital letters and curving around the center of a white sheet. (A second state of this print, Voice Mail Black, features a printed black “background” and white lettering revealing the unprinted paper, and was released as a separate edition.) The ink appears to have been smeared (an effect created by gray ink), lending an impression of rapid motion, with the inverted MAIL seeming to trail the upright VOICE in never-ending pursuit.
The print belongs to a recent body of work that also includes paintings on linen and paper. “The point here,” writes art historian Lisa Turvey on these “swiped” compositions, “is that these phrases seem newly mobile and, in turn, newly charged.” Ruscha’s use of Garamond, a more classical typeface than his conspicuously plain Boy Scout Utility Modern, also establishes a mismatch between its formal refinement and the words’ playful disruption.
Artist: Ed Ruscha
Date: 2022
Medium: 2-color lithograph on white Rives BFK paper
Dimensions: 18 × 16 inches (45.7 × 40.6 cm)
Edition: Edition 22/30 + 12 AP
Signed: Signed, numbered, and dated on recto
Printer: Hamilton Press
Publisher: Hamilton Press
Framed: Sold unframed
