General Idea was a collective of three Canadian artists, Felix Partz (1945-1994), Jorge Zontal (1944-1994) and AA Bronson. Active from 1967 to 1994, General Idea were pioneers of early conceptual and media-based art. Their work inhabited and subverted forms of popular and media culture, including boutiques, television talk shows, trade fair pavilions, mass media and beauty pageants and it was often presented in unconventional media forms such as postcards, prints, posters, wallpaper, balloons, crests, pins, and like this piece, shopping bags. Informed by a continuous strategy of self-mythology, General Idea moved  their work out of museums and galleries and into the everyday world where they were able to reach a much larger and more diverse audience. Best known for the redesign in 1987 of Robert Indiana's "Love" emblem into a quadrant symbol spelling "AIDS," this colorful repeating logo was transformed into paintings, prints, posters and wallpaper, and it was seen virtually around the world, not only in art galleries and museums, but also on billboards, building exteriors and bus stops.

This bag was first presented at General Idea's Yen Boutique, Galerie Montenay, Paris at ARCO '90, Madrid.