Vancouver, 1971: The Image Bank Postcard Show

Image Bank (1970-1978) was a project founded by Michael Morris, Vincent Trasov (Mr. Peanut) and Gary Lee-Nova as a non-hierarchical, decentralized network and archive of artists, images, and ideas –freely exchanged through the international postal system– that operated outside the existing environment of galleries and museums. Image Bank collaborated closely with the trio General Idea (Toronto), and other like-minded networkers including Robert Filliou, Ant Farm, and Ray Johnson’s New York Correspondence School, who were optimistic in forming their own art-world ecologies. This network of user-generated content, which fostered queer, costumed, campy, and ironic personas, provided a model for the connected-but-impersonal mediascape that serves as the primary distribution medium for many artists today.

In 1971, Morris and Trasov invited artists to sent postcards for the The Image Bank Postcard Show, curated by Alvin Balkind, at the Fine Arts Gallery, Vancouver, to celebrate to 100th anniversary of the picture postcard. Joseph Beuys, George Brecht, Sol Lewitt, Lucy Lippard, Yvonne Rainer, and Ed Ruscha were among the many participants. Image Bank’s archive (renamed the Morris/Trasov Archive) is permanently housed at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at the University of British Columbia.