General Idea: Haute Culture: A Retrospective, 1969-1994

This volume presents an overview of the Canadian collective's oeuvre an oeuvre still haunted by Miss General Idea, a fictive character who was at once muse and object, image and concept. Founded in Toronto in 1969 by Felix Partz, Jorge Zontal, who both died in 1994, and AA Bronson, the trio adopted a generic identity that 'freed it from the tyranny of individual genius'. Their complex intermingling of reality and fiction took the form of a transgressive and often parodic take on art and society. Treating the image as a virus infiltrating every aspect of the real world, General Idea set out to colonize it, modify its content and so come up with an alternative version of reality. Including newly commissioned essays and republished texts, this title is illustrated with documents and reproductions of the most important projects realized by General Idea from 1969 to 1994. Published to accompany the exhibition at Musee d'art moderne, Paris, 11 February 30 April, 2011; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, autumn 2011.