STERLING RUBY Was War Won, 2017

Created for Gagosian’s special project space at the 2017 New York Art Book Fair, Sterling Ruby’s WAS WAR WON is a stark, confrontational poster that distills the artist’s ongoing interest in conflict, power, language, and cultural systems into a single graphic statement.

The poster was produced in connection with Ruby’s project room at MoMA PS1, where Gagosian presented an immersive environment built around the theme of war. Ruby’s phrase, WAS WAR WON, appeared throughout the space, set against a dramatic palette of red, green, and black. The result is both visually direct and conceptually slippery: the words read almost like propaganda, a slogan, or a question whose answer is deliberately unresolved.