The question is the answer?
100 Questions by James Lee Byars
James Lee Byars was always asking questions. The prevailing theme throughout his oeuvre, questions posed in one way or another, appear in several works from this period. In 1969, Byars staged The World Question Center, a performance in which the artist answered questions asked by 100 intellectuals and broadcast the discussion live on Belgian television. For his 1971 work, The Black Book, Byers printed 100 questions in impossibly small gold text on black paper. The present lot, a book comprised of 100 pages each with one question printed in tiny text, asks the reader on the first page, “This book is eatable?” Byars was undoubtedly more interested in questions than answers, and probably believed that the question was more important than the answer, or perhaps that they were one in the same.

Twenty Eight Questions
From 100 Questions
This book is eatable?
I’m the self-appointed World Questions Center?
I have perfect question?
Clone me?
What’s the difference between asking and telling?
What questions are you asking yourself?
Think yourself away?
“Forget it” is a treaties?
The question is the answer?
What’s your general honorific sweetie?
I am the complete history of the world?
The ghost of a question?
I’m the unofficial Poet Laurate of the United States?
“Well?” was her favorite question?
Question is Big Art?
How to fall in love with a phone call?
The world is so fantastic why make up?
I can repeat the question but am I bright enough to ask it?
His head weighs 25 lbs?
Mathematics Ha Ha?
Questions are gifts?
I’m full of Byars?
You’re the person they pretend doesn’t exist?
What’s the speed of an idea?
I quit you?
It takes 5 minutes to come down to your level?
The world’s smartest man got mad when asked for a question?
My tongue is insured for $50,000?