The core of the show is a stash of snapshots Ruscha donated to the Whitney that document his 1961 postcollege trek through Europe, but it also includes his photographs of Los Angeles’ “dingbat” apartment buildings, still lifes of mundane household products and aerial views of parking lots—most made well before Ruscha gained acclaim. Images of 17 of the “Twentysix Gasoline Stations” Ruscha memorialized in his eponymous 1963 artist’s book are on display as well. The exhibition contains touchable copies of many of his artist’s books—a contemporary genre he helped invent—and a vitrine displaying his accordion-folded Every Building on the Sunset Strip.

The Art Institute has amped up the show for its local visit with a fine selection of paintings and drawings. In a group of screenprints depicting Standard Oil stations, Ruscha elevates brand identity, creative typography and text to new aesthetic levels while taking on the American Dream in California, from car culture to the worship of symbols and Hollywood-style idealized representations. This impressive show convincingly makes a link between Ruscha’s early photographic vision and these later, signature attributes of his portfolio.