This imagery, painted in pale phosphorescent pigment, is an evocation of everyday reality. The art is nourished by light, but also by time, which is an essential dimension of the works. In each bag, souvenirs of the past, collected in an envelope, bear witness to the origins of the work of art, its history and its evolution. Poetic, political, symbolic and playful, the assembled stamps celebrate, challenge and lend meaning to this passage in time that has been the subject of spectacular media hype. The installation is divided into four distinct scenes, each with a table or desk recalling a different era.
Visitors can settle into a chair at each station to admire the stamps arranged in albums.
Each section also features a glass case displaying stamps that seem to float in water, symbolizing an ocean crossing, a journey overseas or new frontiers. More than three hundred artists from around the world have created more than two thousand works there. The exhibition presents a selection of first-day issues produced on the occasion of joint issues by two or more postal administrations. The interest of these joint issues is that the stamps are presented on a single document and stamped with their respective first-day cancellations, some of which are extremely rare. The Canadian Postal Museum was officially opened at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull, Quebec in June 1997 and will receive its millionth visitor before the end of February 2000.