Cumming, Robert. The Weight of Franchise Meat by Robert Cumming.

Self-published artist's book, 1971. First edition of 500 copies in stapled wraps. Sixteen photographs of hamburger patties being weighed on a postage scale from Orange County burger chains A + W, Bob's Big Boy, Buddy's, Burger King, Carl's Jr., Denny's, Heinz, Jack-in-the-Box, McDonald's, and Punky's. Cited on pages 146-147 of Martin Parr and Gerry Badger's The Photobook: A History, Volume II.  A near fine copy of a very collectible title with just a trace of rubbing. Summary:

The Weight of Franchise Meat (1971) is a seminal self-published artist’s book by American conceptual artist and photographer Robert Cumming. Printed in Orange County, California, in a limited first edition of 500 copies, the 16-page, saddle-stapled booklet stands as a landmark of 1970s West Coast conceptual bookmaking.

Key Summary & Highlights

• Deadpan Premise: Inspired by the conceptual photobooks of Ed Ruscha, Cumming systematically bought hamburgers from 16 major Southern California fast-food chains—including McDonald's, Burger King, Jack in the Box, Carl's Jr., Bob's Big Boy, and Denny's.

• Pseudoscientific Documentation: In each photograph, Cumming isolates the cooked meat patty and places it directly onto a postal scale. Alongside each hamburger rests a handwritten card recording precise empirical metrics: the franchise name, location, price, and exact weight.

• Satire of Fine Art & Consumerism: The work applies rigorous scientific objectivity and formal photographic presentation to mundane fast-food items, creating a deadpan parody of both the clinical nature of Conceptual Art and the corporate promises of consumer "value" and standardized production.

• Legacy: Widely celebrated for its wry, absurdist humor, The Weight of Franchise Meat is recognized as a classic artist's book and was selected by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger for inclusion in The Photobook: A History (Volume II).

Biographical Summary

Robert Cumming (1943–2021)

Robert Cumming was an American painter, sculptor, photographer, and printmaker renowned for his witty, cerebral investigations into perception, illusion, and the mechanics of representation. Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, he earned a B.F.A. from the Massachusetts College of Art and an M.F.A. in painting and printmaking from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Moving to Southern California in the late 1960s, Cumming embraced photography not to document reality, but to construct theatrical set-ups, optical illusions, and pseudoscientific experiments that challenged how viewers process visual information. His work combined rigorous draftsmanship with deadpan humor, spanning artist's books, large-format Polaroid photographs, prints, and sculptures. Over a distinguished career that included teaching positions at institutions such as UC Riverside, Hartford Art School, and MIT, Cumming received multiple National Endowment for the Arts fellowships and a Guggenheim Fellowship, leaving a lasting mark on conceptual art and post-modern photography.