Santa Monica

It’s not often we get a chance to see a number of Ed Ruscha’s word-play drawings all at one shot. More’s the pity because his drawings frequently expand on the implications of his lithographs and paintings. Take the shadowy, needle-fine, cursive ribbon that spells out the word “Sin.” The word takes on a dangerous, even inflammatory aura when we note it was done in pastel and gunpowder on paper. And the pale wash of carrot juice on buckling yellow paper counters the mental assault stimulated by the boldly lettered “Blazing Orifices.”

All of Ruscha’s word-bound images and his newer symbol-without-words pieces look at the mental baggage that makes symbolic representation work. Sometimes, his analysis is purposely fluid, changing with the segments of knowledge we accrue while we “read” the work. Other times, the symbols he uses (like baying coyotes and crowing roosters) are trite--ironically mute signs ripped from mass culture and blatantly empty of meaning.

Unlike artists whose pantomimes of cultural symbols get caught in the sticky problem of being mistaken for what they parody, Ruscha tends to keep his art cleanly in the realm of analysis. In a world bombarded with signs and symbols constantly mistaken for reality, he offers us wry and intelligent surrogates for meanings that are clearly about ideas. These drawings prove that, when not mimicking the impersonal gloss of commercial communication, the artist’s sensitivity to his medium can add immeasurably to the appreciation we gain for the fluidity of represented meaning. (Michael Maloney, 602 Colorado Ave., to Dec. 31.)