She is internationally known as one of the most challenging and influential artists of our age. She has created revolutionary music, performance, videos, film and visual art since the 1960s. Her engagement with language, concept and viewer participation had a strong influence on the formation of Fluxus, and she was among the first artists to practice what later came to be called "Conceptual Art."
Her poetic projects operate on both intimate and global scales, linking experiences of personal transformation with the possibility of political transformation through thoughtful action. Ono's engagement with simple, human activities and her belief in the power of the mind to realize good through visualization, led her to create profound ephemeral works of art seamlessly integrated into everyday life.
These works often took the form of instructions for music, paintings, events, objects and films. They were collected for the first time in her seminal 1964 artist's book Grapefruit, which, from 1970 on, has been re-published in many languages and editions. Perhaps more copies of Grapefruit have been printed than any other artist's book.
She lives in New York, in Dakota Building.