Standard white envelope hand addressed (with a couple of stars) by Byars to T. Longo of Los Angeles who Byars has nicknamed "Peachy Keen", The envelope has been mailed and is franked and dated 23.8.1976 and sent from Belgium. A few stains and marks from the postal service else VG....
Antwerpen: ICC, 1976 30 x 21cm, 4pp plus 1pp insert riveted into the centre. Paper edition with a text in Dutch, English and German and a small 1cm square original photograph tipped on of the artist. Fine. Limitation unknown. ...
Belgium: s.p. (Byars), 1976 A 14 X 10.5CM, hand clipped (b/w offset photograph of James Lee Byars in an unknown performance where the artist appears to be dressed in a costume with feathers along the arms to mimic a bird. JOINT WITH ORIGINAL POSTAL ENVELOPE - A stamped, addressed and mailed example to Thomas Longo of LA. Hand addressed by Byars and with the return address of the artist in Belgium. ...
Antwerp: ICC, 1976 30 x 21cm, 1pp. Single sheet of paper with the title text printed in a single line in the middle of the sheet. The announcement for a performance by Byars - "Action by James Lee byars in front of the I.C.C. on the Meir, Antwerps' busiest shopping street. The proportional analogy between the width of the facade of the I.C.C. and the width of the street, inspired James Lee Byars for this action. Under the watchful eye of Byars, I.C.C. director Flor Bexstarts with the painting of a semicircle on the street in front of the building. The original plan was to give a performance at the exact centre of the halo, but Bex was caught red handed and arrested by a patrol of the Antwerp police. Byars, who had gone "missing" when the boys in blue arrived, eventually gave his performance, under the form of a reception in an unfinished halo.” Leaflet is folded twice in the middle else VG. JOINT WITH ORIGINAL POSTAL ENVELOPE - A stamped, addressed and mailed example to Thomas Longo of LA. Opened neatly....
=Koln: Byars, 1976 15 x 50cm, white on black poster/banner with title press. The Play of Death was a performance by Byars sponsored by Dr Reiner Speck who reserved the 13 first-floor rooms of the Domhotel Cologne where at 12am on a particular date all the shutters were simultaneously thrown open by Byars and 12 doctors dressed in black. Very scarce. Fine....
Amsterdam: Der Appel, 1975 30 x 21cm, 1pp. Announcement leaflet for a series of performance actions by Byars. One large image of the artist holding a long golden pole in a field. Fin...
16 x 8cm, 6pp. Single folded printed card. Unique mail art work sent from Bern to James Butler by Byars in August 1975 (from postmark) comprising a breakfast menu from the hotel (Guten Morgen/Bonjour/Good Morning/Ohayo Gozaimasu/Buenos Dias/Buon Giorno/Boker Tov printed on the front) and on the open middle pages with the food options Byars has written across the top in his starry handwriting :"BUTLER THE WORLD'S MOST GRACIOUS MAN. BYARS" and on the back panel "WITH SOFT SEATS AND A 2 O'CLOCK CHECKOUT TIME EXQUIS INTELLIGOUT" (sic). JOINT WITH 9 x 17,3cm, pink mailing envelope hand addressed by Byars with return hand written address. A mailed and franked example./ Unique work....
NYC: The Rand Corporation, 1975 27 x 20.7cm, 200pp. black boards. An appropriated book which Byars has claimed as his own by signing the first black end paper with his name and the date in his starry letting. Given as a gift the book is a listing of supposed random numbers which clearly appealed to Byars interest in the immaterial and the universal. Fine condition. Unique....
Paris, June 7, 1975 10 x 15.5 cm, 1pp announcement card with the embossed text: "The Louvre secretly invites you to the perfect kiss presented by James Lees Byars by the favour of the Germains at the door of the pavilion Denon on Saturday June 7th 1975 at 11 A.M. exactly". Designed by J.L. Byars. This is the black variant. JOINT: Original black envelope the card was mailed in. AND Paris, June 7, 1975 10 x 15.5 cm, 1pp announcement card with the embossed text: "The Louvre secretly invites you to the perfect kiss presented by James Lees Byars by the favour of the Germains at the door of the pavilion Denon on Saturday June 7th 1975 at 11 A.M. exactly". Designed by J.L. Byars. This is the white variant. ...
Heidelberg: Edition Staeck, 1974 15 x 10.5cm, 2pp artist postcard - a portrait of Byars in black goggles and hat with Duchamp’s famous work “Bottle Rack” behind him (almost crowning the artist) taken by Sigmar Polke. Fine....
Hamburg: s.p. (Hacker), 1974 15.2 x 10.5cm, 28pp (self cover). Theoretical artist's book written by Hacker at a time when he was visiting professor at the Hochschule fur Bildende Kiinste, Hamburg. The book asks the question - "What Is the Sense of Painting?" and is part of the artist's slow return to the act of marking canvasses. The cover of the book shows a b/w photograph of James Lee Byars during a performance and a second b/w image inside the book appears to also be Byars performing on the side of the Rhine in the rain but this is uncredited. Small cut to the top right of the book that runs through all the pages but it is not very distracting. Else VG+. ...
Byars, James Lee Berlin: Galerie R. Springel, 1974 180 x 48cm. Two conjoined sheets of black paper printed in gold. The length of both sheets together is equivalent of Byars height (5’11”). Texts in the top half consist of 100 sentences selected from Shakespeare edited by Byars, containing the word ‘Gold’, the texts in the bottom half consist of texts by H. Szeemann, K. Ruhrberg, T. Deecke, H. Retzner, L. Burkhardt, W. Schmied, M. Haerdter, prof. Eliot. Issued as the “catalogue” for the exhibition “The Golden Tower”, under the artist program, the Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD, 1974. Framed in wood and glass - fine....