Grapefruit – Book of Instruction & Drawings by Yoko Ono

An artist's book written by Yoko Ono, originally published in 1964. It has become famous as an early example of conceptual art, containing a series of "event scores" that replace the physical work of art – the traditional stock-in-trade of artists – with instructions that an individual may, or may not, wish to enact.

Back in print for the first time in nearly thirty years, here is Yoko Ono's whimsical, delightful, subversive, startling book of instructions for art and for life. The "instruction works" are divided into five sections: Music, Painting, Event, Poetry and Object. 

The name Grapefruit was chosen as title because Ono believed the grapefruit to be a hybrid of an orange and a lemon, and thus a reflection of herself as "a spiritual hybrid" (in reality, the grapefruit originated as an accidental cross of the sweet orange and the pomelo).

"Burn this book after you've read it." -- Yoko

"A dream you dream alone may be a dream, but a dream two people dream together is a reality." "This is the greatest book I've ever burned." -- John

First edition published in 1964 is in MoMA's collection.

Hardcover; 320 pages; 5.5 x 1 x 5.5 inches