Double Standard

In 1962 Ruscha produced a book called Twentysix Gasoline Stations, a collection of deadpan documentary photographs he made of gas stations along Route 66 between Los Angeles and his hometown of Oklahoma City. Later he produced a painting and several screenprints based on the photographs. Like many of Ruscha's works, Double Standard has a punning title. The Standard sign urges you to buy your gas here, but it has other connotations--the model against which others should be measured, for example, and mediocre or commonplace. The title Double Standard—deriving from the crossed signs—suggests unfairness, especially in judging male and female behavior.