A concise introduction to the vast career of an era-defining artist

As a pioneering conceptual artist, performance artist, film-maker, poet, musician, writer and peace activist for over five decades, Yoko Ono (born 1933) has influenced several generations of artists, musicians and cultural workers across the globe. Throughout her career, Ono has explored an incredible range of media, coining new kinds of artistic genres–most notably with her instruction pieces, which she began making in the 1950s and continues to devise today. Yoko Ono: To the Light accompanies the artist’s major 2012 overview at the Serpentine Gallery in London (a city to which she has longstanding ties). In her introduction, Ono explains the book and show’s title: We are now at the 13th hour, facing the future together in which we may destroy ourselves or go on to create our heaven on earth. For the Serpentine Gallery, I selected pieces which had the strongest vibration to take us to the light. In accord with this utopian emphasis, Ono is also presenting #smilesfilm, a worldwide participatory project, as part of her exhibition. Conceived as a way of connecting people across the world, users are invited to upload images of their smiles via Twitter and Instagram, creating a global string of smiles. Included in this volume are reproductions of installations, films and performances, plus archival material relating to several key early works. Yoko Ono: To the Light is a concise introduction to the vast scope of this era-defining artist’s many endeavors.