Libros Schmibros Lending Library & Bookshop, Los Angeles, Calif., is operating a pop-up bookstore at the Hammer Museum in Westwood until October 9. This Thursday, that store will host a marathon reading of Jack Kerouac's On the Road.
The genesis of the reading project--as well as the pop-up store--is the exhibition Ed Ruscha: On the Road, a collection of recent works by the artist "connected to Kerouac's novel. There are drawings and word paintings with distant mountaintops dwarfed by phrases from the book," Jacket Copy's Carolyn Kellogg wrote.
"The paintings do stand on their own, of course," she observed. "But for me as a viewer, Ed Rucha's artist edition of On the Road is even more compelling. It was published by Gagosian Gallery and Steidl in 2009, in an edition of 350, signed and leather-bound--lovely to look at, but not something I can take home anytime soon.
"Luckily, the pop-up Libros Schmibros store downstairs has a few used copies still in stock. It generally sells its books for half the cover price, although it is also known to give a neighborhood discount in Boyle Heights."
