Yoko at Indica [Unfinished Paintings and Objects]

London: Indica Gallery, 1966. First edition. Very Good. The exhibition catalog for Yoko Ono’s transformative one-woman show at London’s Indica Gallery. Famous for the place where she and John Lennon first met. A REMARKABLE SURVIVAL: THE ONLY COPY WE CAN LOCATE WITH ALL THE PHOTOGRAPHS AND SLIPS INTACT. The “Yoko at Indica” catalog is an interactive work of performance art, much like her actual exhibit, held in November 1966. There are eight leaves of black and white images of the exhibits printed on gummed paper, with three images to a page, perforated so each of the 24 images can be removed and pasted onto a half-page slip with the correct caption. (truncated) The slips were created by splitting the text pages horizontally – the caption slips are on the top, while the bottom slips, moving independently of the top slips, contain vintage Ono sayings, instructions, and “imaginations”, as well as a somewhat humorous sales/price list, a bio (“gave birth to a grapefruit / collected snails, clouds, garbage cans”) and an artist’s statement (“People went on cutting the parts they do not like of me finally there was only the stone remained of me that was in me but they were still not satisfied and wanted to know what it’s like in the stone”).

Some of the pieces exhibited (and illustrated in the catalog) include her famous white chess set (Play It by Trust), Painting To Be Stepped On, Painting To Hammer A Nail, and significantly, Apple, and Ceiling Painting. “Apple” was the piece that first got John Lennon’s attention when he visited the gallery before the opening at the request of the gallery co-owner John Dunbar. The exhibit – an apple on a pedestal – was supposed to decay over the run of the show as a commentary on the cycle of life, impermanence, and deterioration, but Lennon walked up to the apple and started eating it. He then discovered “Ceiling Painting”, where a ladder was placed under a magnifying glass attached to the ceiling. If the visitor – in this case Lennon – climbed the ladder and used the magnifying class, they could view the tiny painting on the ceiling, simply the word “yes”. Lennon was impressed, much more so than with the apple. As he later explained:

“Well, all the so-called avant-garde art at the time and everything that was supposedly interesting was all negative, this smash-the-piano-with-a-hammer, break-the-sculpture boring negative crap. It was all anti-, anti-, anti-. Anti-art, anti-establishment. And just that ‘yes’ made me stay in a gallery full of apples and nails instead of just walking out saying, ‘I’m not gonna buy any of this crap.’” (quoted in Sheff, 62).

Although their relationship didn't begin immediately, the impression each made on the other at the Indica Gallery set the stage for the future.

Interestingly, the catalog notes “production by Anthony Cox.” Cox was Ono’s husband at the time, and soon to be in a very contentious relationship with Lennon and Ono over the dissolution of their marriage and the custody of their daughter Kyoko.

The catalog is often overshadowed by the fact that it marks the place where Ono and Lennon first met, but that does a disservice to the remarkable nature of the catalog itself. With its innovative format and provocative Ono quotes, the catalog is an interactive work of art, inviting the reader to fully participate in the exhibit through the catalog. It is a natural sequel to Ono’s groundbreaking Grapefruit from 1964, and a monument of the Fluxus movement.

London: Indica Gallery, 1966. Size: 5.5x11 in. (14x28 cm). Composed of illustrated card stock wrappers, complete with 8 thin sheets with 3 photographs per sheet (perforated but still all held together) and gummed adhesive on back (but not sticky, thank goodness) for a total of 24 images; 12 interior text sheets split along the horizontal with the top sheets designed for the 24 images (front and back of each sheet) and the bottom with Ono’s text. Housed in custom box. Some light rubbing to covers, a few sheets with just a hint of adhesive offset. An absolutely remarkable survival in such beautiful and complete original condition.

References:
Sheff, David. Yoko: A Biography, 2025. (Inventory #: 2943)