General Idea
Life & Work by Sarah E.K. Smith
19. The group made use of the body in many works in this period, including Body Prints, 1969;
Mirror Sequences, 1969–70; and Evidence of Body Binding, 1971. See Fern Bayer, “Uncovering
the Roots of General Idea: A Documentation and Description of Early Projects 1968–1975,” The
Search for the Spirit: General Idea 1968–1975 (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1997), 35–36.
20. See “Performances” on the General Idea website, http://www.aabronson.com/GI/perform2.htm.
21. In the early years of General Idea, the membership of the group was much more fluid and, at
times, intentionally obscured.
22. Fern Bayer provides a description of the complex performance and recording activities that
comprised What Happened, 1970. See Fern Bayer, “Uncovering the Roots of General Idea: A
Documentation and Description of Early Projects 1968–1975,” in The Search for the Spirit: General
Idea 1968–1975 (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1997), 44–46.
23. General Idea retroactively crowned Mimi Paige Miss General Idea 1968. Granada Gazelle was
crowned Miss General Idea 1969. No pageant event occurred in either of these years, but these
winners contributed to substantiating the constructed history of the pageant.
24. Louise Dompierre, interview transcript, New York City, July 26, 1991: 18–20, Manuscripts
Series, Manuscripts for Publications and Artworks, General Idea fonds, National Gallery of Canada
Library and Archives, Ottawa.
25. Fern Bayer, “Uncovering the Roots of General Idea: A Documentation and Description of Early
Projects 1968–1975,” The Search for the Spirit: General Idea 1968–1975 (Toronto: Art Gallery of
Ontario, 1997), 75.
26. This point was emphasized by AA Bronson, correspondence with author, February 3, 2016.
27. AA Bronson, “Copyright, Cash, and Crowd Control: Art and Economy in the World of General
Idea,” General Idea Editions: 1967–1995 (Mississauga: Blackwood Gallery, 2003), 27.
28. AA Bronson, “AA Bronson on Art in the ’60s,” University of Chicago, February 10, 2012,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXoWTBVVeHc.
105