Fonds contains materials arising from Anna Banana’s activities in the Mail Art network, her collecting of published materials and artworks, her performance art, exhibitions of her work and others, promotion of her activities, the production of various publications including VILE magazine, and the creation of visual art including artist trading cards, artistamps, collage, drawings and paintings. Materials were created in Victoria and Vancouver from 1964-1973, San Francisco from 1973 to 1982, Vancouver from 1982 to 1995 and the Sunshine Coast from 1995 to 2020, as well as on various tours and travels throughout this whole period. Materials are often focused on the neodadaist movements of San Francisco in the 1970s and beyond, as well as involvement in the Mail Art Network and performance art, and Anna’s personal and professional life.

The fonds is divided into 10 series: Mail art and correspondence, Interactive/performance art, Anna Banana’s publications, Artworks, Artist Trading Cards, Artistamps, Exhibitions, Photographs, Press, Collected publications. Records include textual materials, particularly letters, postcards, books, periodicals, zines, and other published materials; graphic materials such as envelope art, photographs, collage, xerox art, ink and pencil drawings, and watercolour; and other items such as CDs, DVDs, and various artefacts.

In the mid-1980s, Anna Banana began to seriously consider ways that she might be able to create income outside of performance art. Using skills she learned while working at printers and publishers in San Francisco and Vancouver, Banana began to create and sell artistamps, and collected multiple artistamps created by others. Artistamps are a kind of Cinderella stamp used often in mail art, which differ from forgeries or other illegal stamps in that they do not intent do defraud authorities or stamp collectors, but rather are created with the intent to be art. They make up an important aspect of the mail art genre. Banana’s activities often included the production and use of artistamps, especially after she gained access to perforation machines and colour printing in the 1980s.

This series is made up of many of her artistamp sheets, as well as various sketches, final drawings, and printer transparencies created during the process of artistamp production, as well as stamps collected from others.

Series is made up of published materials collected by Anna Banana. Series was collected between 1970 and 2019, from before Anna’s beginnings in the mail art network up until the donation of the fonds to UBC.

Many items were created out of mail art collaborations, while others were collected because of reference to Anna’s work, reference to the mail art network as a whole, because the creators were friends or colleagues of hers or because the items held personal interest. Banana loosely divided this series into a number of different categories, which were the basis of the subseries found here: Zines, Periodicals, Books, Exhibit Catalogs, and “Best Examples of how Mail Art Evolved.” Items which do not fit into these specific categories have been set aside into a subseries labeled “Ephemera”.

This subseries is made up of any items which do not fit into the other categories noted elsewhere in this series, but which were stored among the various collected publications in this series. It is mostly made up of published materials, albeit often unconventional ones.

This subseries includes posters, pamphlets or flyers relating to shows or events, printed essays, calendars, travel guides, invitations to exhibitions, playing cards, assembling boxes, various notebooks written in by Anna Banana, artworks and other miscellaneous materials.

Subseries includes items published in small batches, which might have been created using technologies such as Xerox photocopying, and at home binding techniques including staples and sewing, and which are most often in small (i.e. smaller than A4size) formats, or items which Anna defined as zines. Items are often self-published, or published through small collectives.

This subseries can be differentiated from other subseries as a result of the format and the content of the files. For example, it excludes exhibit catalogues, as Banana distinguished in her own filing system between the two, so small, zine-like exhibit catalogue are not included. Files are distinguished by the names of zines or zine collections. It includes one-off booklets, handmade artists poetry books, handmade or custom zines, some handmade “one of a kind books,” and regularly published small format zines and newsletters.

Subseries is made up of publications collected by Anna Banana, especially books and catalogs, pertaining to exhibitions and collections of artists’ work. Banana’s involvement with the Mail Art Network often included showing her own work all over Europe and North America, by sending mail art, artistamps, drawings and other works to invitational shows and exhibits. Most of those shows in which she partook are noted with small bookmarks, often in yellow, showing those pages where her work is referenced, although not all of the files in this series pertain to her, or even the mail art network. This subseries spans across genres.

Subseries includes exhibition catalogues, publications relating to specific exhibitions, catalogues by artists, product catalogues, directories, some mail art projects which resulted in an exhibit or show, books published in tandem with an exhibit, as well as documentation about invitational shows or competitions. Banana did not distinguish between any of these items and generally categorized them under “Exhibit Catalogs,” “Mail Art Catalogs” or “Artist Catalogs.” The distinction between the items in this subseries and those of Books or Zines often seem superfluous and depend greatly on the whims of Banana’s own boxing system.

Series is made up of the various periodicals, books and textual items which Banana published over the course of her career. Most of these were published under the aegis of Banana Productions, a company first created while Anna was living in San Francisco. Project files contain magazines, newsletters, and artistamp editions; documents related to the creation of these publications, press and promotional materials; books and binders.

Series is arranged into seven subseries: VILE Magazine, Encyclopedia Bananica, Banana Rag, OOK (One Of a Kind) Books, Artistamp News, International Art Post, and Other publications.

Series is made up of correspondence and mail-art related items received and collected by Anna Banana from the late 1960’s to the 2000s. The series reflects Banana’s involvement in the Mail Art movement (through what was then called the Mail Art Network – referring to a global network of artists who communicate through the post as an act of decentralization of artistic communication among the arts community) as well as her own personal mail. Beginning in the mid 60’s, mail art was a movement inspired by the Dadaists and futurists of the early 20th century, and made popular by notable artists such as Ray Johnson, as well as artist groups such as Image Bank and the New York Correspondence School. It remains a highly collaborative and decentralized global movement, with artists like Banana sending out, receiving, and manipulating artworks through the mail. It focuses on small form artworks, including rubber stamps, artistamps, decoration and adornment of letters and envelopes, chain mail and other creative forms.

Subject matter includes mail-art received through the Mail Art Network, personal mail to friends and family, and collected invitations to participate in mail art shows, publications and magazines, as well as catalogues of artists displayed in mail art shows, publications and magazines. Media in this series varies greatly due to the nature of the mail art movement, and the lines between textual and graphic records are blurred, so that many letters, envelopes and other classically textual mediums are often decorated with the use of paints, stamps, drawings, collage and other mixed media.

The series is arranged into 11 subseries using Banana’s existing filing system: Original mail art network, 1990s Mail art (Part 1), 1990s Mail art (Part 2), Mail art Fin de Siecle 2000, 2000s Mail art (Part 1), 2000s Mail art (Part 2), Mail art final years, Personal mail, Mail art show and publication invitations and catalogues, Unfiled mail, and Envelopes.

Includes Cavellini Posters

Subseries was created from 2008-2016. It is made up of mail art and other correspondence received by Banana through the Mail Art Network during this time. This subseries contains some of Banana’s last interactions with the mail art network, and Banana’s interactions with existing friends and colleages continue to predominate its contents.

Items in this subseries are predominantly letters and envelopes, often decorated, but also include photographs, drawings, xerox art, found objects and small sculptural items, collage, and other visual mediums, often integrated into the letters and envelopes.

As well as her performance art, artistamps and various publishing endeavors, Anna was also a visual artist and collector of visual art. This series is a compilation of the various artworks which were created by Anna and various colleagues. It contains xerox art, drawing and watercolours, collage, rubber stamps, as well as a number of photocopies of different artworks.

Subseries is made up of envelopes, collected between 1978 and 2018. While it is uncertain why envelopes were separated and maintained as a separate series, although it is likely some were used for in various shows as examples of Mail Art. Envelopes played a large part in many mail art shows and often the subject of shows themselves. They are important mediums in the proliferation of mail art in all periods.

Envelopes are often heavily decorated with artistamps, rubber stamps, paintings and drawings, and other materials.

Subseries contains records of numerous small performances by Banana from the 1970s to the late 2010s. Banana saved only the planning documents, promotional materials or press from these art pieces, which often only hint at what was performed or produced. Some examples include her Town Fool activities, Going Bananas Fashion Contest and First Female Pope performance.

Subseries contains mostly flyers, notes and letters, photocopies, posters, and other printed matter, as well as a fruit hat used in an unknown performance.

From 1971 onwards, Banana began using interactive and performance art prominently in her artistic practice. This series captures Banana’s various projects and performances. Beginning with her Town Fool activities in Victoria, Banana would often create projects which engaged audience participation. Beginning in the 1990s, she began to create large interactive projects which engaged in research-like activities, under the aegis of the Specific Research Institute. These projects often produced a large number of response forms, which can be found throughout this series, along with reports, certificates of participation, scripts for performances, working drafts and other items. Most items in this series are textual records.

Series is arranged into ten subseries: Bananology and other certificates, Specific Research Institute – But Is It Art?, Specific Research Institute – Proof Positive That Germany Is Going Bananas, Specific Research Institute – Miscellaneous, In the RED/In the BLACK, Futurist Sounds, The WORLD SERIES, A Condensed History of Performance Art, Regifting Bananas, Miscellaneous Projects and Performances.