Gerry Gilbert

Gerry Gilbert (April 7, 1936 in Calgary - June 19, 2009 in Vancouver) was a Canadian poet famous in underground literature for his deliberate eschewing of all awards and competitions as he felt that personal ambition in art led to a lack of sincerity. He was known as Vancouver's bicycle poet.

Life
Gilbert was a multimedia artist who worked comfortably as writer, film-maker, photographer, performance artist and more. He was born in 1936 during a trip between Toronto and Vancouver forcing his parents to stop briefly in Calgary. His art reflects this unique birth as much of its allure is a kind of tension between remaining and continuing. He attended the University of British Columbia (1954–56) before traveling to England and further study there. Gilbert then returned to Vancouver and although he died there he managed to live and travel across Canada and Europe in his younger years.

Gerry became a well known local fixture in the Vancouver art scene and began a periodical anthology of writing that he distributed himself called the British Columbia Monthly (later becoming simply B.C. Monthly) in 1972 placing him among the ranks of Canadian artists participating in the mimeograph revolution. To some he was known as 'the Jude the Obscure of Vancouver poetry'.

Gerry hosted a radio show for many years on CFRO-FM Radio called radiofreerainforest. Gilbert's film and photography have been exhibited by the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, the Western Front, and the Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver). He was a prolific writer whose work spanned from the early sixties into the beginnings of the 21st century. His largest and most comprehensive work is Moby Jane published by Toronto's Coach House Books in 1987.