Anna Banana

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Bio:

Anna Banana, (b. 1940) is a Canadian mail-artist, performer, writer, publisher and artistamp artist. She took her nick name at the age of 30, when a man made her fall over backwards into a box of bananas. Around 1984 she changed her name from Anne Lee Long and took Anna Banana as her official name. She lives in British Columbia and has been an innovator, entrepreneur and critic in the Mail-Art network since 1971.  She was one of a number of artists who pioneered an important branch of Mail-Art, when she created and distributed editions of original postage size artworks called artistamps.  Banana also started the newsletter calledBanana Rag(1971-1991) that, in 1991, she converted to Artistamp News and then passed on to Ed Varney (Canada) in 1996.  Vile, a magazine that Anna started in 1974 in collaboration with Bill Gaglione turned out to be an important instrument in the expansion of the Mail-Art network in the seventies as did her Banana Olympics, the first of which was held in 1975. With the 1988 purchase of a Rosback rotary pin-hole perforator, Banana began publishing International Art Post. At the beginning of the new century Anna's Mail-Art activities were greatly reduced as she began to move in other directions. She became involved in the making and trading of Artist Trading Cards (ATC's ). Trading both by mail and with various artists, in her hometown Roberts Creek where she introduced the activity.

Publications:

Banana Rag (1971-1991) / Artistamp News (1991-1996) - Periodical

Anna Banana? Alive & well in daddaland. [Vancouver, B.C.? : A. Banana, 1973?] – Artist Book

Pssst! Ever seen a banana peel? : 1974. Vancouver, B.C.? : A. Banana, 1973?] – Artist Book

Vile Magazine (1974-1983) - Periodical

**A book about Vile. Vancouver : Banana Productions, c1983 N6494.M35V545 1983 (Art Lib.)

Why bananas. [Malmö] : Wedgepress & Cheese, [1986] – Artist Book

International Art Post(1988) - Periodical

Anna Banana's bulletin. Roberts Creek, B.C. : Anna Banana, [199-] - Periodical

Twenty years of fooling around with A. Banana. Vancouver : A. Banana, 1990

Artistamp collector's album / concept and design by Anna Banana. Vancouver : Banana Productions, 1990.

The popular art of postal parody : international artiststamps / Anna Banana. Victoria, B.C. : Open Space Arts Society, 2000.

Sources for obtaining more information about the artist:

Janssen, Ruud. Mail-interview with Anna Banana (Canana) [sic]. Tilburg, Netherlands : TAM-Publications, [1995] http://jas.faximum.com//library/tam/tam_13a.htm

Ferranto, Matt. “Anna Banana and Guy Bleus: Studies in Networking” from “(mis)reading mailart”, The Spare Room FLUXZONE. http://spareroom.org/mailart/mis_3.html accessed on May 21^st, 2005.

Perneczky, Geza. Network Atlas: World and Publications by the People of the First Network. Soft Geometry, Cologne. http://www.c3.hu/~perneczky/atlas.html (updated April 2003). Vol. 1, pp. 29-35.

Some biographical information obtained from Sztuka Fabryka (2005). Mail-Art Encyclopaedia. http://www.sztuka-fabryka.be accessed in April 2005.