150 x 204mm, 30 pages, Colour printing, Coil bound, Softcover, 2023

The book is a profile on the mail artist named Anna Banana. She was especially prominent in San Francisco during the 1970s creating mail art and dada-inspired performances alongside artists like Yoko Ono, and was part of the Bay Area Dadaists scene. These artists tried to circumvent the gallery art world by placing art in the hands of the network, and using the post to distribute it made it more accessible to many. My book is both a profile on Ms. Banana, but also evaluates the mail art network as an early iteration of the internet, where participants explored alter egos, much like IRL screen names, as a form of artwork and performance. This subculture also developed their own visual language, publishing practices, and motifs (like collecting bananas as a lifelong process, for example), and while offline, is an important contribution to internet history.

Published by