Yayoi Kusama: I Who Have Arrived In Heaven features new work from the artist’s critically acclaimed inaugural exhibition at David Zwirner (November – December 2013), which spanned the gallery’s three consecutive locations on West 19th Street in New York.

Kusama’s work has transcended two of the most important art movements of the second half of the twentieth century: pop art and minimalism. Her extraordinary and highly influential career spans paintings, performances, room-size presentations, outdoor sculptural installations, literary works, films, fashion, design, and interventions within existing architectural structures, which allude at once to microscopic and macroscopic universes.

Opening this book is a series of exquisitely produced color plates of brightly colored, large format square paintings. Part of a recent body of work, they allude to universal spheres or basic life forms and highlight Kusama’s unique amalgamation of representational and non-representational subject matter.

Also featured is the video installation, SONG OF A MANHATTAN SUICIDE ADDICT, in which the artist herself is seen performing a song she composed, while an animated slideshow of selected artworks moves behind her and the two mirrored infinity rooms.

INFINITY MIRRORED ROOM – THE SOULS OF MILLIONS OF LIGHT YEARS AWAY encompassed a cube-shaped, mirror-paneled room that featured a shallow reflecting pool as its floor. Hundreds of multicolored LED lights were suspended at varying heights from the ceiling which flickered on and off in a strobe-like effect. Another mirrored infinity room, LOVE IS CALLING, stands as one of Kusama’s most immersive, kaleidoscopic environments to date. It was composed of a darkened, mirrored room illuminated by inflatable, tentacle-like forms—covered in the artist’s characteristic polka dots—that extended from the floor and ceiling, gradually changing colors.

Akira Tatehata is an art critic and poet based in Japan. He has written extensively about Yayoi Kusama’s work. In 1993, he invited the artist to represent Japan at the 45th Venice Biennale. He now serves as the President of the Kyoto City University of Arts, Director of The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, and Chairman of the Japanese Council of Museums.