Grapefruit is 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.
Event scores were developed by a number of artists attending John Cage's experimental music composition classes at the New School for Social Research in New York. Whilst Ono did not attend these informal lessons, her husband at the time, Ichiyanagi Toshi, did and Toshi and Ono became regulars of Cage's circle of friends by 1959. Other members of this group included David Tudor, Morton Feldman, Richard Maxfield and Merce Cunningham. Invention of the event score is usually credited to George Brecht, but La Monte Young and Yoko Ono are also cited as amongst the first to experiment with the form. Both Cage and Brecht were deeply influenced by "Oriental thinking", and Ono found that her Buddhist-inspired work was, almost accidentally, fêted by the emerging New York counterculture as avant-garde.
Origins of the book
Often considered a Fluxus artwork, in fact the work was originally published by Ono's own imprint, Wunternaum Press, in Tokyo in an edition of 500. After leaving New York in 1962 – where she had exhibited at Maciunas' AG Gallery, amongst others – her then-husband Anthony Cox suggested she collect her scores together. George Maciunas, the central personality in Fluxus, had apparently been trying to reach her in Tokyo with the aim of printing a similar book in New York, as part of his series of Fluxkits, but his letters had not reached her; she sent some of the scores and a prepublication advertisement to be published in his Fluxus newspaper in February 1964 when contact was finally established.
First edition
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". It also seems likely that it is a playful allusion to Brecht's Water Yam, itself a pun on Brecht and Watt's Yam Festival, which, culminating in a series of events and performances in May 1963, had been derived from "May" backwards. The first edition that was published in 1964 in Japan by Wunternaum Press created by Yoko Ono, contains over 150 "instruction works"; virtually all are in English, with about a third translated into Japanese. They are divided into five sections; Music, Painting, Event, Poetry and Object. The instructions are preceded by dedications to figures including John Cage, La Monte Young, Nam June Paik, Isamu Noguchi and Peggy Guggenheim, and also includes documentation relating to Ono's recent exhibitions and performances. The work was originally sold for $3.00 before publication, $6.00 after. 1964 Wunternaum Press. Tokyo, Japan
Subsequent editions
The second edition was published in 1970 by Simon & Schuster in New York, Peter Owen Ltd in London, and Bärmeier & Nikel in Frankfurt. As well as an introduction by John Lennon, the work contained 80 more instruction pieces, and included two more sections, Film and Dance. The book ends with a collection of Ono's writings including To The Wesleyan People, 1966. There were also paperback versions printed by Sphere and Touchstone around the same time, and a reprint by Simon & Schuster in 2000. The sphere edition has a particularly memorable sleeve, conflating the title with Yoko Ono's film Bottoms,, a film composed exclusively of naked bottoms, made in 1966. 1970 Bärmeier & Nikel. Frankfurt am Main, Germany Peter Owen. London, UK Simon & Schuster. New York, USA POMELO. Ediciones de la Flor. Buenos Aires, Argentina 1971 Sphere Books. London, UK Simon & Schuster. New York, USA TouchStone Book, USA 2000 Simon & Schuster. New York, USA Bakhåll. Sweden 2004 PAMPLEMOUSSE. Textuel. France 2005 GRAPEFRUIT. INSTRUZIONE PER L'ARTE E PER LA VITA. Mondadori. Italy 2006 POMELO. Centro de Creación Experimental. Cuenca, Spain
Planned sequel
Grapefruit II was planned as a sequel. It is mentioned once in Grapefruit and had a pre-publication price of $5 and a post-release price of $10. It was planned to be released in 1966 and is currently unreleased. Ono stated that it would contain 150 new pieces not featured in Grapefruit, including her "touch poems". A sequel to Grapefruit was published in 2013, Acorn.
Some of the scores
PIECES FOR ORCHESTRA COUGH PIECE CLOUD PIECE
PAINTING TO EXIST ONLY WHEN IT'S COPIED OR PHOTOGRAPHED
PAINTING TO BE CONSTRUCTED IN YOUR HEAD
SNOW PIECE
TUNAFISH SANDWICH PIECE
PAINTING TO BE STEPPED ON
Sequel: ''Acorn'' (2013)
In July 2013, Ono released Grapefruit's sequel, called Acorn, another book of "instructional poems". It is , .
