JAMES LEE BYARS

Announcement for the exhibition of the Black Book (A Book With Invisible Covers). Michael Werner Gallery, Cologne, 1971. Gold lettering on black card, 10 x 15 cm.

Date and venue not known. Gold colored card with artist’s name in tiny white letters, 10 x 15 cm.

Performance announcement, Eugenia Butler Gallery in Los Angeles, 1969. Pentagon-shaped glossy gold card with red lettering. Each edge is 10cm.

Pen on white envelope, 1978.

Gold colored metallic and cotton thread, 1977. 1.5mm thick x 2 meters long. To be hung from the ceiling above one’s pillow as a conduit for the miraculous to enter one’s life while sleeping. Exhibition history: MASS MoCA, 2004; UMEX Museum of Contemporary Art, Mexico City, 2014; MoMA PS1, 2014.

MoMA performance, 1970. 24 pink envelopes, each 80mm x 40mm, with 24 one-page “books”, each 40mm x 40mm These objects were part of a performance given by Byars at MoMA on the opening night of an exhibition honoring Gertrude and Leo Stein. Byars, who read deeply into Stein’s writing, chose 100 sentences he liked and…… Continue reading The Gertrude Stein Book

Gold pencil on pink tissue paper, 1978. 35 mm wide, ca. 6 meters long. Sent while B. was living at the California Hotel in Santa Barbara.  

Pen on white tissue paper, 1978.

Pen on white writing paper, no date.

Gold pencil on pink tissue paper, 1980s. 35mm wide x 6 meters long.