Ed Ruscha: Castiron Calendar

Ed Ruscha produced this etching with Crown Point Press in 2023. The pictured phrase emerges from an amorphous brown background that the artist would describe as one of his “anonymous backdrops for the drama of words.” Stenciled in Boy Scout Utility Modern—the squared-off, all-capital typeface Ruscha designed in the early 1980s—it exemplifies the paradox and whimsy that distinguish his use of language. While alliteration and the depiction of two eight-letter, three-syllable words lend cohesion to the unlikely pairing, the connotation of durability in the first term contrasts with the implication of change in the second, and the viewer is left to ponder what, exactly, a “castiron calendar” might be.