Exhibition catalogue published in conjunction with show "In Focus: Ed Ruscha," held at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, April 9 - September 29, 2013. "This publication features thirty-eight Ruscha plates and an essay that traces the evolution of the artist''s thinking about his photographs initially as the means to the end of his self-published photobooks and eventually as works of art in and of themselves. Virginia Heckert contextualizes Ruscha''s photographs within the history of photographic documentation of vernacular architecture, using examples by such important photographers as Carleton Watkins, Eugène Atget, and Walker Evans, as well as contemporary photographers, many of whom have acknowledged Ruscha as an influence in their own depiction of the built environment." --publisher''s statement.