Kerouac's 120-foot scroll for 'On the Road' visits Fort Myers with art by Ed Ruscha

It’s one thing to read Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road,” the 1957 novel that helped define the Beat Generation.

It’s quite another to see the original manuscript: A long scroll of unbroken text that Kerouac famously banged out on his typewriter in a three-week, drug-fueled blur.

“It’s such a remarkable object,” says Jade Dellinger, director of Bob Rauschenberg Gallery in south Fort Myers. “It just has this incredible presence.”

Now that famous paper scroll — all 120 feet of it — is visiting Fort Myers for a new exhibit at the Florida SouthWestern State College gallery.

The artifact will be paired with pages from renowned Pop artist Ed Ruscha’s own version of “On the Road,” an art book that combines text from Kerouac’s novel with photos inspired by the famous and influential work.

"Jack Kerouac & Ed Ruscha: On the Road" opens Friday, June 29, and continues through Aug. 18. The opening-night reception includes a performance by famous composer/musician David Amram, who collaborated with Kerouac on 1957 jazz-poetry readings in Greenwich Village and helped create performance art in the process.

“They really invented the whole idea of jazz-poetry readings,” Dellinger says. “It goes back to the two of them.”

The readings, Amram says, were designed for people to share their artistic gifts with one another and become better artists in the process.

“It’s all about being harmonious with one another, rather than blasting somebody off the planet,” Amram says. “You’re trying to enhance what’s already in the world.”

Amram has performed at many of the scroll’s exhibits around the world. For his Rauschenberg Gallery show, he plans to play a Thelonious Monk jazz piece and more. He’ll be joined by musical friends such as Tampa singer-songwriter Ronny Elliott, who will recite some of Kerouac’s poetry.

The scroll is on loan to Rauschenberg Gallery from Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay, who bought it at auction in 2001 for $2.4 million.

“It’s the original manuscript,” Dellinger says. “It’s the seminal text. And it really defined and changed a generation.

“I can’t tell you how important this is."

The novel is a fictionalized version Kerouac’s road trips throughout the United States and Mexico in the 1940s. Its “characters” are thinly disguised Beat Generation icons such as Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs. Their names were changed for the published version of the novel.

The original scroll, however, includes all the real names — Burroughs is Burroughs, Cassady is Cassady — as well as Kerouac’s various notations and edits.

According to legend, Keruoac cranked out the entire script in just 20 days on that continuous scroll fed directly into his typewriter. In reality, the entire work was likely created and revised over several years.

Even so, proof of Kerouac’s feverish pace is obvious from the long stream of unbroken text. The idea was to write without interruption or the need to constantly feed sheets of paper into his typewriter.

“There were no paragraph breaks,” Dellinger says. “There were no commas.”

The book ended up being one of the most famous works from the Beat Generation, a 1950s group of counter-culture writers that included Ginsberg and Burroughs. The novel is often listed as one of the top 100 most important books of all time.

The book influenced artist Ruscha, too, who published a 2009 artist-book edition of “On the Road,” pairing text from the novel with Ruscha’s black-and-white art photos inspired by those words.

Framed pages from that book will be displayed at Rauschenberg Gallery alongside the scroll. It’s the first time both the scroll and Ruscha’s pages have ever been shown together, Dellinger says.

The photos — some that Ruscha shot himself and some that he commissioned from other photographers — include jazz instruments, a pile of car parts, a stack of toast and a slice of apple pie a-la-mode on a diner dish.

Ruscha wasn’t available for an interview with The News-Press. But here’s how he’s previously described “On the Road”:

“It's about a group of crazy young people who just travel back and forth across the United States,” he said. “Sometimes they hitch-hike and sometimes they drive cars. They steal cars and just want to be on the road the whole time. I've always liked that notion.”

Amram says it’s great to see that Kerouac’s work can still inspire people to be creative and collaborate, more than six decades later.

“It’s just wonderful to see the effect it has on people,” he says. “All these years later, it can still make the world a better place.”

Connect with this reporter: Charles Runnells (Facebook), @charlesrunnells (Twitter), @crunnells1 (Instagram)

If you go

What: "Jack Kerouac & Ed Ruscha: On the Road"

When: Opening reception and concert from 6-9 p.m. Friday, June 29. The exhibit continues through Aug. 18.

Where: Bob Rauschenberg Gallery at Florida SouthWestern State College, 8099 College Parkway S.W., Building L, south Fort Myers

Admission: Free

Gallery hours: 10 a.m.to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday

Info: 489-9313 or rauschenberggallery.com