In 1991, Gonzalez-Torres lost his partner Ross to AIDS (the artist would face the same fate in 1996). In a tragic and highly personal tribute to Ross, Gonzalez-Torres took a picture of his still-indented empty bed - an image of universal intimacy and loss - and placed it on two dozen commercial billboard spaces throughout New York.
In May 1992, a series of 24 billboards displaying an identical image began appearing throughout New York City. They featured a giant close-up black-and-white photograph, without text, of a rumpled bed, pillows still indented from the heads that had rested there.
Activism through print media is often done through duplication: posters, flyers, magazines, manifestos. But with these media, each individual duplicate holds the same, political message.
In Felix Gonzalez-Torres's "Untitled" (Death by Gun) (1990), a stack of posters are placed in the gallery space for people to take with them. As the pile is depleted, more posters are printed.