This catalogue design was an attempt to recreate the experience of visiting the exhibition, which explored the relationship between art and the popular image of California in the 20th century. The strategy of the cover and jacket and the sequence of images that begins the book was to demonstrate that many of the popular images of California tend to contradict each other, yet that they are all valid to some extent. The title font for the book, based on letterforms on a 1940 California license plate, was created to give the book a voice that is simultaneously historical and contemporary.