Royal Road Test, 1980

Heavy Industry Publications, LA, 1980.

4th edition. Limited to 1500 copies. Spiral binding. Front cover type a little scuffed, signed on front free endpaper.

‘Royal Road Test’ is a collaboration between Edward Ruscha, Mason Williams and Patrick Blackwell. It is a picture book story of a Royal manual typewriter as it is tossed out of the window of a 1963 Buick travelling at ninety miles per hour. Ruscha is cast in the role of the driver, Blackwell the photographer and Williams the thrower. The core of the book is a photographic examination of the remains of the subsequently damaged typewriter strewn over a distance, analysing the end of an automobile prototype.