Zero Mass: The Art of Eric Orr

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"On the occasion of Eric Orr's exhibition [at Anders Tornberg Gallery, Lund, Sweden, October 27 - November 21, 1990] we present the book / object 'Zero Mass: The Art of Eric Orr,' a 330-page volume, bound in blue steel, with some fifty full-color reproductions of the artist's work. This book-project was conceived by Eric Orr and his friends artist James Lee Byars and critic Thomas McEvilley during a journey to Egypt in early 1989. The outcome is an exceptionally varied and generous work, consisting of a novella, explanatory texts, assorted notions, references, and some unexpected events." -- publisher's statement.

Zero Mass is a collaborative book by Eric Orr [1939 - 1998] and James Lee Byars [1932 - 1997] as well as a "unique" multiple by Byars. Book is comprised of an anodized steel faced book with extensive images and text, mostly serving as a quasi-catalogue raisonné of Orr's work, along with texts jointly authored by Orr and Byars, with additional text by Thomas McEvilley. Book is accompanied by a handmade ball of fired clay, titled by Byars "The Sphere of Generosity." Texts in English. Like all works by Byars and McEvilley the texts read as a personal journal about their friendship, which is shared with Orr herein.

Book and multiple are housed in a molded Styrofoam box, which is packaged within a inside a screenprinted cardboard sleeve.

A number of additional highlights include "The Matter of O" [pp. 15], on which the Orr stamped a ring of his own blood - a la a coffee stain. The "Skull Page" [pp. 163-4] is noted within the colophon as being an inserted page of handmade paper by Yoshio Ikezaki, using kozo fibers impregnated with the powdered mummy's skull. Pages 25-26 torn as designed by the artists.