FONT OF CREATIVITY MOCA DEVOTES AN EXHIBITION TO A TRUE WORDSMITH - L.A. ARTIST ED RUSCHA.

Byline: Steven Rosen Correspondent

Word up!

That may sound like an impertinent way to describe an art museum show, especially one at so respected an institution as the Museum of Contemporary Art.

But in the case of ``Cotton Puffs, Q-tips, Smoke and Mirrors: The Drawings of Ed Ruscha,'' it's quite appropriate in tone and fact. First, the very name of the show connotes a certain humorously irreverent spirit.

But more aptly, ``word up'' spot-on describes the content of the majority of the 200 artworks in this thorough retrospective of the 67-year-old Los Angeles artist's drawings. Ruscha's great subject is the painted - or, in this case, drawn - word. He depicts the written or printed word as a physical, visual object that occupies space as concretely and solidly as a tree, or flowing as gently as a river.

Or, to compare it to one of his favorite Los Angeles sites and the subject of some of his drawings, the Hollywood sign.

As a result, what you see is truly what you get here. Drawings called ``Rustic Pines,'' ``Promise,'' ``Quit,'' ``Nashville,'' ``City,'' ``Motor,'' Respect,'' ``Self,'' ``Dirty Baby'' and ``Pee Pee'' are exactly what they say they are - those very words on paper. In a way, it's all an extended serial undertaking - like Monet's haystacks or Jasper Johns' numbers. And it's an attempt to turn a private obsession into compelling art with universal appeal.

The exhibition's title comes from Ruscha's description of his technique. On paper, he uses masking tape to cover the outline of the word he wants to feature in his drawing. Then, after applying layers of a powdered medium - usually gunpowder, pastel or powdered graphite - and a fixative to the paper's surface to give the background shading, color and texture, he removes the tape and uses everyday sundries to fill in the word's outline.

``He said, 'Well, you know, it's all cotton puffs, Q-tips, smoke and mirrors,'' says exhibition curator Margit Rowell. ``And I said, 'That's the title!' Then I had a terrible time getting permission to use the word 'Q-tip.' ''

It might appear that, at a certain point, this tireless pursuit of the perfect word would become rote to Ruscha, who moved to Los Angeles from Oklahoma in 1956 to study art at the old Chouinard Art Institute. But there is a powerful conceptual aspect to the work that apparently gives him perennial renewal. And it has made all his work - his paintings and photography as well as his drawings - as worthy a piece of the pop-art vision as Andy Warhol's Campbell's soup cans.

Overall, Ruscha has expanded the territory of fine art by letting us see words as well as read them. (He wasn't the first, but he connected them to something cool in pop culture.) Partly because of his contributions, contemporary art can be the everyday, commercial world - with all its printed words - that surrounds us. That has made him one of America's - not just California's - most important living artists.

Ruscha's earliest work here dates to 1959, when his small drawings experimented with abstract-expressionist imagery. But there already were signs he would move beyond that - the drawings confine the abstracted brush strokes within boxes and grids. It's the equivalent of putting a quotation mark around a word to imply self-awareness. And that is a very pop notion.

Presented chronologically, this show reveals just how much effort at variation Ruscha has put into his words-work since starting in the 1960s. There is a delicate fluidity to the ones drawn with a ribbonlike script, reminiscent of the gorgeous ribbon candy sold at expensive department stores.

A selection is included of drawings featuring petroleum jelly, blood, coffee and more. Dominating the gallery containing this work is a white banner reading ``Spread'' in brown letters. It consists of chewing tobacco on paper.

Ironically, what is certain to be the most popular Ruscha piece on display at MOCA technically isn't part of this show. It is ``Chocolate Room,'' which Ruscha originally made for the 1970 Venice Biennale and which was recently purchased and reinstalled by the museum to coincide with the retrospective.

While it's not visually extraordinary - it is, after all, just gallery walls covered with 360 sheets of brown paper - the crowd response makes it a terrific interactive artwork. People walk around the room sniffing the art for that subtle, sweet, chocolaty aroma. Alas, guards are on watch for anyone who tries to lick the art.

COTTON PUFFS, Q-TIPS, SMOKE AND MIRRORS: THE DRAWINGS OF ED RUSCHA

Where: Museum of Contemporary Art, 250 S. Grand Ave., L.A.

When: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday; 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Through Jan. 17.

Tickets: General admission for adults is $8; free on Thursday. [phone] or moca.org.

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Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Ed Ruscha not only explored the artistic possibilities of words - as in ``Lips'' (1970), top - bit also reimagined American icons, as in ``Bison Study #2'' (1989), left.