Self-published in 1963, Ed Ruscha’s Twentysix Gasoline Stations is widely considered the first modern artist’s book. [Rew-Shay]’s ordinary, unfussy snapshots of various Route 66 gas stations are offset-printed inside with simple, factual captions. That’s it. Mass-produced and mundane, the book is a distinct departure from the tradition of precious, hand-crafted, and one-of-a-kind artist’s books. Ruscha would soon publish conceptually similar typologies in even larger editions. Titles from the period include Some Los Angeles Apartments, Every Building on the Sunset Strip, Nine Swimming Pools, and Thirtyfour Parking Lots. His books are straightforward representations attempting no exaggeration.

Hillsborough Street is a collection of transcribed interviews, pedestrian photographs, and location histories along a lackluster street in Raleigh North Carolina. The city would change quickly. Within a year of the book’s original publication, Raleigh was ranked highly in more Best, Most, and Top lists than ever before. Now half of Hillsborough Street’s establishments are no longer there. Critter’s book captures a sillier, dingier time, before the recession, before the renewal.