Crackers, 1969

Heavy Industry Publications, LA, 1969.

Soft covers. Limited to 5000 copies. Little rubbed with small tear at top left of front cover, top rear jacket edge a little scuffed. Else very good.

Ed Ruscha’s ‘Crackers’ presents stills from an amusing film based on Mason Williams’ essay How To Derive The Maximum Enjoyment from Eating Crackers in Bed, which reads as a set of instructions for a man and his dinner date. In Ruscha’s iteration, actors follow Mason’s script. A man makes a giant salad on a hotel room bed, complete with vinegar and oil, and invites a woman over for a dinner date, encouraging her to climb into the prepared salad. In a final act twist, the man leaves her to fetch a bag of Saltines so that he may eat alone in a nicer hotel suite elsewhere.