Grapefruit (Inscribed first edition)

Tokyo: Wuntemaum Press, 1964. First edition. Near Fine. First edition, first printing, limited to 500 copies, inscribed on the first blank, “To Ann McMillan, 1965, Summer. Yoko Ono." Square octavo. Original perfect-bound white wrappers, lettering to front cover in black. Covers lightly dust soiled and marked, tiny chip to corner of front cover, corner of fore edge knocked affecting back cover and last six pages, otherwise internally a very bright and clean copy.

This artist's book earned and has maintained fame as an early example of conceptual art, making her a predecessor to men like Kosuth and Weiner, who popularized the approach. "The (truncated) original Grapefruit is split into five sections—Music, Painting, Event, Poetry, Object—with each page offering a conceptual direction for work yet to be created...After Ono married John Lennon, Simon & Schuster published a new edition of Grapefruit, though this version included some editorial revisions and additions—the most prominent among the latter being a short foreword authored by Lennon” (The New Yorker). Grapefruit was not published in the UK until 1970, with an introduction by John Lennon. Lennon later acknowledged that his song "Imagine" was drawn from Ono’s poems in the book, and in recognition of this Ono was credited as the song’s co-writer by the National Music Publishers Association in June 2017.

In 1965, Yoko represented Japan in a four-part radio series on WBAI, New York City. She was interviewed by the avant-garde composer and the station’s music director, Ann McMillan, about traditional wartime and post-war tunes. Yoko explained the culture and thought behind several tunes including "Manchu Musume" and "Tonarigumi." Near Fine. Near Fine. (Inventory #: 6161)