20 Mar THE PERFECT THOUGHT WORKS BY JAMES LEE BYARS. 1990. SIGNED & DEDICATED BY AUTHOR.

Houston: Contemporary Arts Museum, 1990
27.5 x 21cm, 156pp plus red cloth boards and pictorial dust jacket. First edition of this well-researched monograph issued on the occasion of the large scale Texan exhibition which was planned to bring Byars to a wider American audience. The essays and introductions are good and the entire book is illustrated in b/w and full colour plates (mostly of Byar’s classically formed sculptures although paper works and performances are well represented too) but Elliott’s “Notes towards an autobiography” is an extensive timeline of Byar’s career and life and still unsurpassed in empathy. This example has some closed tears on the back and the front of the dustjacket near the spine and some wear and tear along the foldlines of the dj but internally fine. Scarce.