The North End Toronto (2007)

The North End is an archive of 600 posters scavenged in this Halifax neighbourhood from July 2005 - July 2007. It was first exhibited at Emerson Gallery (Berlin, 2006) to showcase the wide ranging cultural activities of a small East Coast city in Canada. The installation was exhibited again at Art Metropole in 2007, alongside it's publication. 

The North End used to be an underdeveloped (now quickly gentrifying) neighbourhood in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This city is known in the art world for its art school, the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, which was an international hotbed for conceptual art, particularly in the 1970s. For The North End, Busby systematically gathered remnants of the various music, political and art events which were freely advertised on telephone poles in the form of posters. Often inexpensively produced photocopies, this format enabled almost any individual or group to participate, resulting in documents which were wide-ranging in the type of content they promoted. 

The North End was not a tourist destination in the early 2000s and so, ironically, Busby also made t-shirts which were sold during the exhibitions, made available to visitors at souvenir prices.

Busby's publications, The North End (2006) and The North End: Vol. II (2007), each a limited edition of 10 signed and numbered copies, contain full-page poster reproductions arranged in chronological order, printed in black and white or colour depending on the original. Each book opens with a permission poster listing the names of individuals, groups and organizations found on its pages. The edition includes three cloth-bound box sets containing both volumes and 32 American Apparel t-shirts printed by the Ink Storm Silkscreen Collective (Halifax). 

Books available at Art Metropole.