This exhibition assembles the formative early work of three endlessly creative, witty, ironic, mischievous and often perverse artists. Individually they went by their noms de plume, AA Bronson (Michael Tims), Felix Partz (Ron Gabe) and Jorge Zontal (Jorge Saia). Together they called themselves General Idea, a name that in its inception was just what it implies - a concept.

The three artists of General Idea joined forces in the 1960s in the counter-culture community of Toronto, combining their diverse talents and brilliant ideas to produce performances, "displays," "environments," film and video works, publishing projects and even their own "zine," FILE Megazine. They continued to work together until 1994, when both Felix and Jorge died of AIDS-related causes. Over the course of their unique 25-year professional and domestic collaboration, Jorge, Felix, and AA produced a powerful body of work, which received international acclaim and changed forever the face of contemporary art practice.

The Search for the Spirit presents many works never before exhibited - much of the material is idea rather than object-based, and therefore more ephemeral in nature. Like many artists of the period, they sought to circumvent the museum and gallery structure, and to find alternative ways of working. The period covered here surveys the years in which they set down the conceptual structure on which all their future work was based.

General Idea's art is basically this: a metaphor for the art system in which General Idea is the artist; Miss General Idea is the work of art; The Miss General Idea Pageant is the process of creation, selection and presentation of the work of art; The 1984 Miss General Idea Pavillion is the museum or gallery; and the Frame of Reference is the audience and the media.

In 1977 General Idea razed their mythical Pavillion in a public performance, complete with smoke bombs, fire-trucks and a newscast helicopter, signalling the end of their roles as "architects" and the beginning of their careers as "archaeologists" sifting through the ruins. This beginning, however, also marked a return - to the art object itself.