Allen Ruppersberg: Intellectual Property 1968–2018

This striking publication accompanies a major retrospective exhibition on one of conceptual art’s most inventive and acclaimed practitioners. Emerging in late-1960s Los Angeles, Allen Ruppersberg was among that city’s first generation of conceptual artists to espouse a working method that privileges ideas and process over conventional aesthetic objects. Deploying posters, books, postcards, and even a café and hotel, his projects have consistently had at their center a focus on the American vernacular—its music, popular imagery, and ephemera—mining the nuances of culture through its unsung conventions. From his earliest works, the artist has also welcomed the involvement of the viewer as a participant, inviting an immersive experience of his work through language, visual density, accumulated elements, and ideas. This fully illustrated catalog is the most comprehensive publication to date on Ruppersberg’s work, featuring a wealth of scholarly content and critical writing connecting Ruppersberg’s work to the larger contemporary art field. Produced by the Walker’s award-winning design studio and in close collaboration with the artist, the book presents a holistic view of Ruppersberg’s wide-ranging, 50-year practice. Edited with text by Siri Engberg. Introduction by Olga Viso. Text by Thomas Crow, Matthew S. Witkovsky, Aram Moshayedi, Allen Ruppersberg. Designed by Emmet Byrne and Ben Schwartz Published by Walker Art Center, 2018 Softcover, 352 pages, 120 color and 100 b&w images, 8.25 × 11.75 inches ISBN: 978-1-935963-16-5