DENVER, CO.- The Denver Art Museum presents Ed Ruscha: On The Road, a vibrant exhibition featuring works inspired by Jack Kerouac’s seminal work On The Road, the novel that came to define the Beat Generation. Both artists utilize language as a form of social commentary, documenting the continuing shifts in the American cultural landscape. Ed Ruscha: On The Road will be on view from December 24, 2011 through April 22, 2012. By superimposing passages from Kerouac’s epic 1957 novel onto images of snow-capped mountainsor abstract backgrounds, Ruscha injects new life into the feverishly written words. Much of the novel, typed on a continuous 120-foot-long scroll, is set against the backdrop of post-World War II lower downtown Denver. “On The Road is a quintessential Western sojourn,” said Thomas Smith, director of the Petrie Institute of Western American Art at the DAM. “As Denver played a