Guy Bleus was born in Hasselt, Belgium. In 1978 he founded The Administration Centre – 42.292 which became a huge art archive with the works and information of 6000 artists from more than 60 countries.[3] "Guy Bleus has one of the finest archives of mail art in Europe, if not the world."[4]
Bleus was the first artist who systematically used scents in plastic arts. In 1978 he wrote the olfactory manifesto The Thrill of Working with Odours in which he deplores the lack of interest in scents in the visual arts.[5] Since then he showed smell paintings, mailed perfumed objects and made aromatic installations; he also created spray performances where he sprayed a mist of fragrance over the audience.[6][7][8]
Exploring the possibilities of communication media as art media, he investigated the postal system in Indirect correspondence (1979) and searched for an alternative postal system in Airmail by balloons. Together with Charles François he was a pioneer using a computer connected to a modem for artistic communication (in 1989). He also applied reproduction media such as Microfilm, CD-ROM and DVD-ROM for artistic reasons.
One of his performance works from the 1980s was documented in the artists' periodical Force Mental. The performance took place in the venue Il Ventuno in Hasselt, and is described as follows:
"Guy Bleus wears a costume made of official stamps of 1/2fr. He cuts his moustache into a Hitler-moustache. Against the wall he hangs photocopies of Hitler's head. Enlargements whereby the moustache is growing bigger (till A3 format). Bleus sticks then stamps, the same as of which his costume is made of and stamps them with his number-stamp: 42.292. Then he sticks a naked girl full with stamps of 1/2fr and stamps them with the number stamp. Finally he cuts off his Hitler-moustache and breaks a mirror."[9]
Another fascinating performance of Bleus is called 'Value Shredder' (1982, Brussels, Gallery Entr'Act). Bleus took hundreds of real 50 Belgian franc banknotes and made a suit out of them. Wearing this suit he began his performance. He gave the audience plastic raincoats to put on and asked them to hand over their identity cards. He put the cards into a paper shredder, then tore up Mein Kampf and threw the pages into the shredder too. When everything was completely shredded he blew odours and flour over the public with a fan. Finally, he removed his suit and set it on fire. After the performance the public received an identity card from planet Mars.[10] A life-size photo of Bleus's money suit is part of the art collection of the National Bank of Belgium (NBB).[11]
To honor the Italian artist Guglielmo Achille Cavellini Guy Bleus organized the four-day "Cavellini Festival 1984" in the cities of Antwerp, Brussels, Eeklo, Hasselt, and Tienen. In the administrative performance "First President of the USE" in Brussels, capital of Europe, Bleus officially declared Cavellini the very first president of the United States of Europe.[12]
Numerous are the international art projects Bleus has organised, such as Are you experienced? L.H.F.S. (1981),[13]W.A.A.: Mail eARTh Atlas (1981–83),[14]Telegraphy (1983),[15]Aerograms (1984), Cavellini Festival 1984,[16]Art is Books (1991), Fax Performances (1992–1993),[17]Private Art Detective: Sealed Confessions, and Building Plans & Schemes (1993).[18]
He wrote and published many essays on the subject of networking art.[19] About his essay Exploring Mail Art (1984), Géza Perneckzy wrote: “The study of Guy Bleus outranks all other publications with its theoretical weight and conciseness.”[20] Moreover, he contributed to significant publications, such as Piotr Rypson’s Mail Art, Chuck Welch's Eternal Network, A Mail Art Anthology, or Vittore Baroni’s Postcards – Cartoline d’artista. He participated in many artists' periodicals.[21]
From 1994 till 1999 he opened in Hasselt the art gallery E-Mail-Art Archives. In this non-profit space more than 40 events of mail art, fax art and Internet art took place. Artists such as Ben Vautier, Shozo Shimamoto, Anna Banana, Julien Blaine, H.R. Fricker and Clemente Padin were exhibited.[22][23][24][25][26][27]
In 1995 he edited The Artistamp Collection,[28] the first mail art catalogue on CD-ROM. With the participation of networking artists such as Vittore Baroni, Ken Friedman, John Held Jr., Ruud Janssen, György Galántai, Pawel Petasz and Géza Perneczky, he published in 1997 the first E-Mail-Art & Internet-Art Manifesto, an issue of his electronic zine.[29]
After a bureaucratic venture of 20 years he realised in 2003 (together with Jean Spiroux) the very first postage stamp on the theme mail art edited by an official Postal Service. It was an edition of 4 million copies realised by the Belgian Postal Service.[30]
In 2005–2006 Bleus organised the olfactory mail art project Scents, Locks & Kisses with 778 artists from 43 countries in the Art Museum Z33.[31] The website is a slideshow with all the works of the participating artists.[32]
A retrospective of his work was held in the Cultural Centre of Hasselt in 2010. The publication Pêle-Mêle: Guy Bleus® – 42.292 had bracts perfumed with lavender essence and included a re-edition of his ID from planet Mars of 1979.[33]
Löbach-Hinweiser, B. Artists’ Banknote Works, Cremlinge, 2000
Saper, Craig J. Networked Art, University of Minnesota Press, 2001
Castellin, Ph. Doc(k)s : mode d'emploi - histoire, formes & sens des poésies expérimentales au XXe siècle, Ed. Al Dante, Paris, 2002. ISBN2-911073-97-5
Siegmann, R. Mail Art, Art postal – Art posté, Paris, 2002
Perneczky, G. Correspondence Works & Labels, Köln, 2003
Blaine, J. Mail Art 2003, VAC, Ventabren art contemporain, 2003
Starbuck, M.K. Clashing and Converging: Effects of the Internet on the Correspondence Art Network, Austin, University of Texas, 2003
Chandler, A. & Neumark, N. (Ed.). At a distance: precursors to art and activism on the Internet, MIT Press, Cambridge (MA), 2005
Baccelli, V. Arte Postale – Mail art, Tesseratto Editore, Seville (E), 2009
Lomholt, N.P. & Denhart, L.A. Lomholt Mail Art Archive, Formular Press, Denmark, 2010
Gutiérrez Marx, G. Artecorreo: Artistas Invisibles en La Red Postal 1975–1995, Buenos Aires, Luna Verde, 2010
Sousa, P. (Merzmail). Mail Art – La Red Eterna, L.U.P.I., Sestao, 2011
Held, J. Where the Secret is Hidden: Collected Essays, 1979–2011 – Part 1 &2, Bananafish Publications, Sacramento and San Francisco, CA, 2011
Bleus, G. Social Mail-Art, in: Boschi, A. 50 Years of Mail Art: 1962–2012, Museo Civico e della Mail Art di Montecarotto, p. 46-47, 2012
dj readies (Craig J.Saper). Intimate Bureaucracies: A Manifesto, Brooklyn, NY: punctum books, 2012. ISBN978-0615612034
Holsbeek, D. Guy Bleus, in: Landscape of Images, ed. Eurlings, Ellen (e.a.), Hasselt, 2012. ISBN9789074605557
Chiarlone Debenedetti, B. Art through Postal Service, Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso S.p.A., ilmiolibri, Roma, 2013
Galántai G. & Klaniczay J. (Ed.). Artpool: The Experimental Art Archive of East-Central Europe, Budapest, 2013. ISBN978-963-08-7225-6
Crombez, T. Arm theater in een gouden tijd. Ritueel en avant-garde na de Tweede Wereldoorlog, Lannoo, Leuven, 2014. ISBN978-94-0141-711-2
Ramon, R. Vorm & Visie. Geschiedenis van de Concrete en Visuele Poëzie in Nederland en Vlaanderen, Poëziecentrum, Ghent, 2014. ISBN978-9056550851
Pianowski, F. Análisis Histórico del Arte Correo en América Latina, Universitat de Barcelona, 2014
Held, J. Small Scale Subversion: Mail Art & Artistamps, TAM-Publications, Breda, 2015. ISBN978-1-329-05805-7
Sarenco, Benetton L., De Vree J. Visual Poetry in Europe, imago mundi, Luciano Benetton Collection, Antiga Edizioni, 2016. ISBN889-9657319
Bleus, G. Communication: 44 Statements, in: Cook, S. (ed.), Information, Whitechapel: Documents of Contemporary Art, The MIT Press, 2016. ISBN978-0-262-52934-1
Pas, J. Artists' Publications: The Belgian Contribution, Koenig Books, London, 2017. ISBN978-3960-98-1978
Vuegen, Ch. Artministrator Guy Bleus in CIAP, Hasselt, in: H Art magazine # 178, 22/02/2018, p. 10
Rota, A. Mail Art: l'eternal network dell'arte postale, Università Ca'Foscari Venezia, 2018.
Wilson-Brown S., Smell Is All Around Us, in : "The Global Impacts and Roles of Immersive Media", ed. by J. Ford Morie & K. McCallum, IGI Global; Hershey PA, 2019 ISBN978-1799824336
^Bex, F., Baudson, M., e.a.. L’art en Belgique depuis 1975. Antwerp : Fonds Mercator, 2001.[1]
^[2]Archived March 30, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Prof. Dr. Van den Bossche, Marc. The 'system' – Guy Bleus as a critic of technical thinking, in: Pêle-Mêle: Guy Bleus® – 42.292, Hasselt, 2010
^[3] ADT: The archive as a work of art: Guy Bleus – 42.292, CVK - Muhka, 2020
^Held, Jr., John. Mail Art: An Annotated Bibliography, Metuchen, 1991
^[4] Manifesto 'The Thrill of Working with Odours' 1978
^Hermans, Ivan. Guy Bleus in: High Performance, Issue 22, Vol.6, n°2, 1983
^Perneczky, Géza. Artists’ Stamps, in: Stamp Images, Budapest, 1987
^Perneczky, Géza. The Magazine Network: The Trends of Alternative Art in the Light of Their Periodicals 1968–1988, Cologne, 1993
^Pêle-Mêle. Guy Bleus - 42.292, ed. R. Geladé, N. Coninx & F. Bleus, Cultuurcentrum, Hasselt, 2010, p.128
^Programmatiebrochure, Centrum voor Kunsten, Hasselt, Belgium, Fall 1994, p. 9.
^Programmatiebrochure, Centrum voor Kunsten, Hasselt, Belgium, Spring 1995, p. 10: Ray Johnson; Retrospective I: Doc(k)x - J.Blaine (1976-1995).
^Cultuurnieuws - Provinciaal Centrum voor Beeldende Kunsten, Hasselt, Belgium, September 1996, Vol. 1, # 1, p. 6.
^Cultuurnieuws - Provinciaal Centrum voor Beeldende Kunsten, Hasselt, Belgium, September 1997, Vol. 2, # 6, p. 5: Personalia & Persona Grata: Klaus Groh; Clemente Padin.
^Cultuurnieuws - Provinciaal Centrum voor Beeldende Kunsten, Hasselt, Belgium, February 1998, Vol. 3, # 8, p. 4: Personalia & Persona Grata': Fernando Aguiar, Piermario Ciani, Jurgen O. Olbrich.
^Bleus, Guy. The Artistamp Collection 1995–1996 [10][11]
