Image Bank was an artistic collaboration between Michael Morris (b.1942, Sussex, England), Vincent Trasov (b.1947, Edmonton), and, until 1972, Gary Lee-Nova (b.1943, Toronto). Based in Vancouver and connected to the artist-run centre Intermedia, they explored what they described as “art mailed between artists.” Image Bank sought collaboration in its quest to engage with the torrent of information and images delivered through the mass media. Their 1971 exhibition, Image Bank Post Card Show, displayed thousands of postcards sent in response to a call for images. Like General Idea, Image Bank turned to irony and camp, derived from queer culture and kinship, in their quest to merge art and life.

Image: Piss pic by Michael Morris contribution to Image Bank request mailing, 1972, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

For further reading, see:

Watson, Scott. “In the Image Bank.” In Image Bank, 11. Vancouver and Berlin: Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, University of British Columbia, and KW Institute for Contemporary Art, 2019.