From the 'America, The Third Century' portfolio. The complete
portfolio, published in 1976, included work by thirteen artists: William
Bailey, James Brooks, Christo, Alan D'Arcangelo, Roy Lichtentstein,
Costantino Nivola, Robert Andrew Parker, Robert Rauschenberg, James
Rosenquist, Ed Ruscha, Raymond Saunders, Ben Schonzeit, and Velox Ward.
Poster versions of the thirteen prints were also published, the
portfolio and the posters were recognised by the American Revolution
Bicentennial Administration and bear the official logo.

Ruscha has described how, “Words have temperatures to me. When they
reach a certain point and become hot words, then they appeal to
me...Sometimes I have a dream that if a word gets too hot and too
appealing, it will boil apart, and I won’t be able to read or think of
it. Usually I catch them before they get too hot.”

Many scholars consider the years 1973 to 1975 to be the pinnacle of
Ruscha's explorations into language and its sensory dimension as
expressed through pictorial means. In this piece green, blue and yellow
musical notes tumble and waft across the surface of the brilliant red
grafitti style phrase 'America Whistles'.