That's where the trouble begins

This ain't no picnic -- by Joe Reifer

Q: How does the spectator fit in?

Ed Ruscha: That's a good question, I don't know. I'll tell you, I don't even think about it. It's not my job to do that. It's for other people to do that, maybe the critics. But I don't think it's all that necessary that the critics make the connections. Whether or not the work communicates anything to anyone is not important to me. The work is my indulgence. I don't set out to get something across. I don't think very many artists do. That's where the trouble begins, when artists try to communicate.

From an interview with Ed Ruscha in: Leave Any Information at the Signal: Writings, Interviews, Bits, Pages (originally published in Real Life Magazine, n. 14, summer 1985)