航視：《二十六個加油站》疊合的時空序列

Navigation: The Overlapping Time-Space Sequence in Twentysix Gasoline Stations

1963年美國藝術家埃德・盧薛（Ed／Edward Ruscha, 1937-）出版的《二十六個加油站》（Twentysix Gasoline Stations）標記了1960年代藝術家藉由書冊走向大眾的理想。事實上在20世紀初期，許多前衛藝術家已獨立地看待書冊的創作，但出版的數量有限，在法國被稱作「藝術家的書」。當1960年代年輕藝術家需要更多傳播的管道，選擇可以大量印刷流通市面的書冊，已經不同於過去藝術家的書採取限量珍藏的目標。因此，作為作品的書在新時代急需新的定義，進而在美國激起超過二十年的論辯，直到1990年代英語複數指稱的「藝術家書冊」（Artists’Books）獲得更廣泛的共識，也代表這類作品已取得一定的地位。
然而，今日從泛稱的藝術家書冊一詞很難解釋1960年代藝術家選擇書冊的原因。因此，本文回到卡里翁（Ulises Carrion, 1941-1989）強調藝術家做的書具有形式與內容相對應的時空序列想法上，重新解讀《二十六個加油站》的影像內容如何疊合書頁的形式，這包含：一、書頁構成的序列性，二、作品指涉的地理景觀，三、標題的數字所透露出當時地理學界轉向空間計量的研究方法。四、各影像相同的取鏡方式呈現出彼此的連接性。五、源自單張的快照接合了拍攝與行車的動作。六、拍攝距離與多次旅程的紀錄使得相片也像衛星遙測影像含有時空解析度的問題。綜合上述，作品影像所顯現出時間經歷與空間探索間彼此影響的過程，反映了1960年代衛星在移動中持續觀看的新視覺範式，本文稱為「航視」（navigation），這也預示往後在觀念、表演與大地藝術中重視歷程的創作。

In 1963, American artist Ed Ruscha published Twentysix Gasoline Stations, a book he both edited himself and printed in larger quantities than traditional limited-edition or collectible art books. This approach reflected Ruscha’s ambition to use books as a means of reaching a wider audience. The relationship between artists and books extends further back, as artists have long contributed to book illustration, binding, and design, often collaborating with renowned writers.
In early 20th-century Europe, avant-garde artists sought to challenge traditional notions of authenticity and rarity in art. As part of this effort, they began to create books as artworks, though these publications were produced in relatively small quantities. In France, these works were categorized as livres de peintre (painter’s book) or livre d’artiste (artist’s book). In contrast, in the 1960s and 1970s, a younger generation of artists explored new forms and sought alternative platforms to exhibit their work. Books, due to their ease of circulation, became an attractive medium. Unlike the earlier rare books created by artists, which were produced in limited editions for collectors, the books produced by this new generation emphasized accessibility and mass distribution. This shift prompted a redefinition of the artist’s book, sparking a debate in the United States that lasted for several decades. It was not until the 1990s that the term“Artists’Books”or“Artists Books”gained broader consensus, solidifying the book’s status as an independent artistic form.
However, the turn of many artists, in the 1960s, to books by cannot be accounted for fully by the later concept of Artists’Books. To address this, the study revisits the ideas of Ulises Carrion, the first artist to theorize books made by artists in 1975. Carrion argued that a bookwork unfolds through a space-time sequence in which form and content interact dynamically. In this light, the photographic images in Twentysix Gasoline Stations gain meaning through the sequential structure of the pages and should be understood as part of a spatial and temporal continuum grounded in the real world.
This study proposes six approaches to understanding the overlapping space-time sequence in Twentysix Gasoline Stations:
1. Carrion’s concept of sequence, in which the arrangement of pages constructs meaning over time.
2. Geographical references, which both document Ruscha’s journeys from Los Angeles to Oklahoma City and reflect postwar suburban expansion and the rise of automobile culture.
3. The number twenty-six, which evokes the“quantitative revolution”in geography and suggests Ruscha’s engagement with data-oriented thinking.
4. Compositional framing, where each photograph reserves one-half to one-third of the image for the asphalt road, visually articulating the continuity of the route across the pages.
5. The act of shooting while driving, which produces a rhythmic, observational mode akin to a satellite tracing the landscape along Route 66.
6. Spatiotemporal resolution, enhanced through recurring trips and distant framing, shaping the perception of Route 66 across twenty-six photographic moments.
Together, these six lenses suggest that Twentysix Gasoline Stations introduces a new mode of perception—what this study calls navigation—aligned with the contemporaneous emergence of satellite vision, and shaped by movement, sequence, and an expanded spatial awareness that anticipates later developments in Conceptual, Performance, and Land Art.