NEW YORK, NY.- The Mixografia Workshop, the renowned downtown Los-Angeles based print workshop, will debut RUSTY SIGNS, Ed Ruscha’s new series of prints at the IFPDA Print Fair, which opens to the public on November 6 to 9 at the Park Avenue Armory.

Says Mr. Ruscha: "Since a very young age, my attention has always been on signs of every kind -- some that I have painted by hand and others that are blank or enigmatic.  These new editions are about neglected and forgotten signs from neglected and forgotten landscapes.”

According to Shaye Remba, whose father established Mixografia in Mexico City, in 1973 this group of prints, which are set to total six, are further expressions of a consistent theme that runs throughout the artist’s work: the passage of time. Once again filtered through the language of common American objects, the prints appear to be rusted signs that read “DEAD END,” “CASH FOR TOOLS,” and “FOR SALE 17 ACRES.”

Mr. Ruscha has chosen to produce multiple variations of each sign, giving the impression that they have been weathered by time in varying ways, as if they came from different locations or were subjected to a different set of circumstances. Some have gunshots and some are missing sections, while others have acquired thick layers of rust and grime. In this way, each seems to contain an independent story, their histories, though only implied, having literally formed their present state. And yet the observer is confronted with simply the physical effect of time upon them, a blunt reminder of its inescapability, even on steel.

This project also marks a transformation of some of Ruscha’s aesthetic concerns; having painted and photographed signs and signage throughout his career, this suite of prints signifies the first time in which he is not merely representing the image of the sign, but actually recreating the sign itself.

Says Mr. Remba, whose print workshop has collaborated with Mr. Ruscha for 20 years “No longer do we see a fictionalized representation (e.g. the Hollywood sign ablaze), or a limited one (the carefully cropped photos of Some Los Angeles Apartments), but we actually see the sign itself, and its physicality is a part of its essence.” At the same time, having been removed from context, they still share the sense of disconnection that permeates many of his depictions of signs. Ruscha asks us to consider these components of visual culture as independent objects, as if their introduction into the world was not merely an accident or result of inevitable forces, but an act of creation, a work of art.