Keeping the queer magic of Les Petites Bon Bons alive

839 Gallery has announced the representation of the archive of Les Petites Bon-Bons, a queer artist collective formed in 1971 out of gay liberation organizing in Milwaukee and active in Los Angeles throughout the 1970s. 

The Bon-Bons – namely Jerry Dreva and Robert Lambert, aka Jerri and Boby Bonbon, but also featuring Chuckie Betz, Gary Pietrzak, Mark Slizewski, Dick Varga, and Jim Sullivan – created a unique synthesis of art, politics, and sexuality that challenged mainstream notions of gay identity and artistic practice, and blurred the lines between art and life.

The Bon-Bons were committed to expressing a mutable identity, a quality that resonates in contemporary culture. They pursued this through active participation in the international Eternal Network of correspondence artists, a proto-Internet that emerged from Fluxus; similarly, their sophisticated use of mass media presaged today’s culture of image and persona. 

“As soon as people thought they knew us,” writes Lambert, “we wanted nothing more than to destroy that notion. Our core philosophy had always been fluid identity.” 

Put another way, according to Jerri Bon-Bon, “creating the self is the only significant art form left in the 70s.”

Los Angeles played a crucial role in the Bon-Bons story. 

The city's vibrant glam rock scene, epitomized by venues like Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco on the Sunset Strip, provided a backdrop for their outrageous personas. At this time, performers such as the glitter-era David Bowie became known for blurring gender roles, flaunting androgynous looks, and wearing flamboyant clothing, makeup, and hairstyles. Bowie visited with the Bon-Bons during his March 1973 trip to LA. The Bon-Bons were regulars at Rodney’s and also integrated everyday LA locales into their performances, staging appearances at spots like the Rainbow Bar and Grill, The Troubadour, The Whisky, The Gold Cup, Philippe’s, Blue Nunn, Burrito King, and the Atomic Cafe.

Les Petites Bon-Bons mainly distributed their work through direct mail and publishing activities during their active period. Their DIY ethos manifested in self-published zines like Lambert’s Egozine (1975-1978), positioning them at the forefront of 1970s fanzines. These publications served as a platform for experimentation and expanded their network of collaborators and admirers. Their focus on alternative networks, proto-punk aesthetics, and fluid identity positions Les Petites Bon-Bons as forerunners for many tendencies in contemporary art today.

In 1982, the group was included in Dan Cameron’s seminal Extended Sensibilities: Homosexual Presence in Contemporary Art at the New Museum, the first museum exhibition in the U.S. to examine contemporary art through the lens of sexual identity. MOCA’s 2017 exhibition, “Axis Mundo: Queer Networks in Chicano L.A.,” curated by C. Ondine Chavoya and David Evans Frantz–which traveled to seven subsequent venues–featured costumes, photographs, and ephemera from the Bon-Bons. 

This presentation caught the attention of the 1980s synth-pop Pet Shop Boys’ vocalist Neil Tennant, whose 2024 track “A New Bohemia” honors the legacy of the Bon-Bons. Additionally, work by the group appeared in Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines, curated by Branden W. Joseph and Drew Sawyer at the Brooklyn Museum in 2023 and the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2024.

The extensive Les Petites Bon-Bons archive, meticulously preserved by central figure Robert Lambert, includes rare photographs, original correspondence, handmade artists’ books, homemade costumes, and a wealth of objects and ephemera that offer unprecedented insight into the group's process and cultural impact. 

Lambert said: “Flush with the brash bravado of youth, we expected our work to one day incite critical attention, even addressing an imagined future audience. I saved everything—but never thought it would take 50 years, or that I’d still be here to see it.”

“Les Petites Bon-Bons were truly ahead of their time, pushing boundaries and challenging norms in ways that continue to resonate,” added Liz Hirsch, co-founder of 839.

“Their blend of queer performativity, glam and proto-punk aesthetics, and intra-arts networking found a home in 1970s Los Angeles. Revisiting their archive here in Hollywood, where they flourished creatively, offers a vital opportunity to reassess their profound impact on art, identity, and culture. This archive is not just a historical record, but a living testament to artistic subversion.”

The first archival exhibition of Les Petites Bon-Bons at 839 is scheduled for September 2026 and will feature original photographs, correspondence, costumes, artists’ books, t-shirts, prints, and other objects and ephemera.

• Jerry Dreva (AKA Jerri Bonbon) (b. 1945, Milwaukee; d. 1997, Milwaukee) received a BA from St. John’s University, Collegeville, MN, and an MA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He exhibited at A Space (Toronto), UC San Diego, San Francisco Art Institute, Cal State Long Beach, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art (LAICA), Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, and Water Street Arts Center (Milwaukee). Before founding Les Petites Bon-Bons, Dreva was active in the Congress on Racial Equality and the Gay Liberation Front. He moved to Los Angeles in June 1972. After the group dispersed, Dreva continued to experiment with correspondence art, performance art, and the media apparatus. A small selection of Dreva's papers is preserved in the collection of the Smithsonian Museum of American Art.

• Robert Lambert (AKA Boby Bonbon) (b. 1948, Cudahy, WI) attended the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. He was introduced to Dreva by playwright and poet Barbara Gibson, and together they conceptualized Les Petites Bon-Bons. Lambert moved to Los Angeles in January 1973. He collaborated with the Bon-Bons for several years, became the publisher of Egozine, and then moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1970s. Since the 1980s, he has been a purveyor of artisanal jams, sauces, syrups, and cakes. Lambert, who now lives in Kewaunee, WI, is one of the few remaining members of the Bon-Bons and the primary holder of the Bon-Bons archive.

• Chuckie Betz (AKA Chuckie Bonbon) (b. 1951, Cudahy, WI; d. 2023, Milwaukee) co-founded the Gay Liberation Front, New Gay Underground, and the Radical Queens in Milwaukee, WI. He moved to Los Angeles in the early 1970s, where he collaborated with the Bon-Bons. He moved to San Francisco in 1976, lived briefly in St. Louis, and returned to Milwaukee in 1980.

• Gary Pietrzak (AKA Gary Bonbon) (b. 1950, possibly Milwaukee; d. 1996, Milwaukee) was also involved in organizing with the Radical Queens before joining Les Petites Bon-Bons.

• Mark Slizewski (AKA Mark Bonbon) was a member of Les Petites Bon-Bons. His whereabouts are unknown.

• Jim Sullivan (AKA Jim Bonbon) was a member of Les Petites Bon-Bons; he lives in San Francisco.

• Dick Varga (AKA Dick Bonbon) (b. 1942, Milwaukee) coined the name “Les Petites Bon-Bons,” which was intended for a theatrical review planned by the Radical Queens but which never materialized as such. He lives in Palm Springs, California.

839, founded by Hirsch and artist Joshua Smith in June of 2024, is a contemporary art gallery operating out of a 1924 duplex in Hollywood. The exhibition calendar, currently organized through 2027, features artists working across various media based between Los Angeles, New York, Texas, Europe, and Latin America.

For images and inquiries: info@839gallery.com