L'Amour

Ed Ruscha has always been fascinated with language and with transforming text and cultural icons into high art. In 1967, he began a series of “paper ribbon” drawings featuring isolated words as objects set in three-dimensional space. He drew in a trompe l’oeil manner, using various media, cotton swabs, and the palm of his hand to establish subtle tonal gradations and illusionistic effects. Ruscha maintains that he chose words for their appearance, sound, or spelling rather than their meanings or referential associations. L’Amour presents a French word-object whose meaning is well known to English-speaking viewers. Despite Ruscha’s statements to the contrary, the drawing’s soft focus and lyrical expression reinforce the word’s romantic associations.