Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama has pursued her principal themes of infinity, self-image, sexuality and compulsive repetition since she took the New York art world by storm in the late 1950s with her Infinity Nets -- heroically-scaled paintings covered in endlessly repeating net-like patterns, which won the admiration of artists ranging from Barnett Newman to Donald Judd. In Kusama's installations and sculptures she compulsively covers every surface, either in polka dots (Infinity Mirror Room, 1965); mirrors (Endless Love Show, 1966); or phallus-like protrusions (Violet Obsession, 1994, a vivid purple boat lined with stuffed forms).

This is the first monograph on the forty-year career of this distinguished, highly innovative artist, who represented Japan at the Venice Biennale in 1993; it was published to coincide with an exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery, London, January -- March 2000.