Since the mid-1960s, Ed Ruscha has developed an iconic body of works, simultaneously as a painter, a photographer (with such historical books as "Twentysix Gasoline Stations," 1963), a filmmaker, and an acute commentator of American culture. Born in 1937 and based in Los Angeles, he is a key figure of the last few decades and one of the first artists to have introduced a critique of popular culture and an examination of language into the visual arts.

This anthology of writings and interviews, edited by Jean-Pierre Criqui (editor-in-chief of the "Les Cahiers du Musée national d'art moderne" and one of the best European critics of American art), offers a first opportunity to French readers to discover Ruscha's comments on his own work, his beginnings, his evolution, the artistic developments of the period, and the relationship between art and society. Gathering together texts from 1974 to 2009, this book is a unique occasion to approach Ruscha's work and life from the inside.

Under the direction of Patricia Falguières, the "Lectures Maison Rouge" collection has as its ambition to propose artist's texts, which simultaneously interrogate museology, exhibition making, and the work of certain artists themselves. After the French translation of the "White Cube"—Brian O'Doherty's seminal texts—and the intense and erudite dialogue between Richard Hamilton and Marcel Duchamp, this long-awaited volume further develops the series' commitment for research in contemporary art history.