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Book Launch

Give Peace A Chance – Photographs Of John Lennon & Yoko Ono By Gerry Deiter

In 1969 photographer Gerry Deiter accepted an assignment to cover Beatle John Lennon and artist Yoko Ono as they spent a week in bed in a Montreal hotel. Deiter covered the entire week of the Bed-In For Peace but the photo essay ended up getting bumped from the magazine by a a breaking news story so the photographs were never published. The photos remained largely unsen until 2002 when Deiter started to exhibit them. The photographs started gathering more and more attention, culminating in an exhibition at the Royal BC Museum, a show that opened  December 5, 2008. Just a few days later on December 9,  Deiter suffered a heart attack and passed away.

The photographs might have disappeared from view again except for the efforts of Deiter’s friend Joan Athey who secured the rights to the images and has now compiled them in a book ‘Give Peace A Chance”. The book received an official launch in Victoria at Swan’s Hotel.  More information can be found at  www.peaceworksnow.com.

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Joan Athey kicks off the book launch

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Joan reads

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Playwright and poet Charles Tidler gives a reading, a blow up of a Deiter photo covers a window

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An overflow crowd listens and watches

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The book