Edward Ruscha

A first edition of Ruscha's eleventh book, featuring one bespoke baby (his own) and many mass-produced commercial cakes.

• Edward Ruscha (American).
• Photographs by Elizabeth Claman, Sid Felson, Jerry McMillan, Danna Ruscha and Ed Ruscha.
• New York: Multiples, Inc., 1970.
• 52 pages.
• Bound in the original robin's-egg blue wrappers with pink satin ribbon tie and green flocked lettering. 

Babycakes With Weights was originally issued by Goodman's imprint as part of the boxed portfolio set Artists and Photographs, with a catalog and works by 18 other contemporary artists (Sol LeWitt, Bruce Nauman, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol and others). Despite the cover's uncharacteristic soft pastels and textures, the book's photographs are in black and white, as austere as frosted cakes ever are. The pictured baby, at a stated 15 lbs 8 oz, weighs double the largest cake shown, or approximately 70 Hostess cinnamon rolls.