Edward Ruscha and Lawrence Weiner, Hard Light, 1978

I'm not just looking for pretty flowers to paint. There is a certain flower of decadence that inspires me. And when I drive into some sort of industrial wasteland in America, with the themeparks and warehouses, there's something saying something to me. It's a mixture of those things that gives me some sense of reality and moves me along as an artist.

-Edward Ruscha, 1988 text from Esquire, titled "The Witness,"