Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) is renowned and adored for her surreal world of dots, pumpkins and Infinity Mirror Rooms. Her hallucinatory paintings, sculptures, and immersive environments take us beyond ourselves and make us feel part of something greater. Unique in her ability to conjure wonder while also asking bigger questions about human existence,

Kusama’s balloon worlds invite us to join her very personal artistic investigation into the big cosmic questions of human existence – who are we and why are we here?

Kusama’s pioneering career spans eight decades and she is now a global phenomenon. This is the first ever publication dedicated to this significant body of work (1996 ongoing) – her fantastical balloon environments that appear to defy gravity and that beguilingly play with our sense of space and scale, mind and body, reality and illusion.

Richly illustrated, with a new essay by poet and critic Akira Tatehata; a new interview with Yayoi Kusama about her ‘balloons’; a new conversation between psychotherapist Philippa Perry and neuroscientist Professor Anil Seth about Kusama’s perceptual magic; and a complete illustrated history of Kusama’s inflatable artworks. The book also features updated texts on key artworks and exhibitions by curators Seungduk Kim and Franck Gautherot; poetry and texts by Yayoi Kusama; and a comprehensive illustrated artist biography including images and ephemera from Kusama’s archive.

Published on occasion of the exhibition ‘Yayoi Kusama: You, Me and the Balloons’, Jun 30 – 28 Aug 2023, the first exhibition at the UK’s most ambitious new cultural venue, Factory International, Manchester, UK.

All images courtesy of Ota Fine Arts and Victoria Miro and Copyright of YAYOIKUSAMA. Temporary cover image listed.