Jamie Reid | Pretty Vacant, promotional poster, 1 July 1977

Jamie Reid

Pretty Vacant, promotional poster, 1 July 1977

(982 x 710mm.), inscribed with slogan 'Fuck Forever' and signed by Jamie Reid, framed

The bus to nowhere, and its twin destined for boredom, is one of the great punk images. It was not, however, originally created for the Sex Pistols. Reid's cover for 'Pretty Vacant' reworks earlier graphics that he had made for his situationist Suburban Press. The image of the ‘Nowhere’ and ‘Boredom’ buses was then produced in 1973 for the pamphlet ‘Space Travel, an official guide for San Francisco commuters’ produced by the American Situationist group Point-Blank! That stated ‘We are all going nowhere. No matter where we travel…’ – evidence of the rich cross-fertilisation of ideas from which the visual identity of the Sex Pistols was formed.