Ed Ruscha – Various Small Fires and Milk

Ed Ruscha’s Various Small Fires and Milk (1964) is a foundational artist’s book that exemplifies his cool, systematic approach to photography and conceptual publishing. The book assembles a sequence of black-and-white photographs depicting small, isolated fires, matches, and flames, concluding with the deliberately incongruous image of a glass of milk. Presented without commentary or narrative, the images adopt a neutral, almost forensic tone that resists interpretation.

Ruscha famously described his photographs as “a collection of facts” and his books as “a collection of readymades,” a position that is central to Various Small Fires and Milk. Meaning emerges not from symbolism or expression, but from repetition, sequencing, and the quiet tension between images. The inclusion of the glass of milk, unexplained and unresolved, underscores Ruscha’s interest in non-hierarchical structures and his refusal to guide the viewer toward a singular reading.

As one of the earliest and most influential artist’s books of the postwar period, this fine art multiple played a crucial role in establishing the artist’s book as an autonomous conceptual medium. Deeply informed by Marcel Duchamp’s notion of the readymade, the work remains a cornerstone of conceptual art, foregrounding Ruscha’s enduring fascination with the banal, the overlooked, and the mechanics of perception in American visual culture.

"The most renowned series of artist’s books in the history of the genre, Ed Ruscha’s works still retain their capacity to surprise, delight and puzzle in equal measure. In the several decades since they were published, they have been much exhibited, written about and analyzed, yet they somehow are still objects of mystery and fascination, beguiling in their utter simplicity and immutable rightness."
– Parr, M. & Badger, G., The Photobook: A History (Volume II), London: Phaidon, 2006, pp.140-1