THE summer art show at Janette Ray Booksellers in York may be inspired by Le Grand Départ, but Janette wanted the exhibition to stick around for rather longer than the Tour de France peloton.

“The idea for the show originated because after the Tour has flashed through the city, I thought it would be interesting to have something less ephemeral than a souvenir of the moment, such as a flag or hat, by which to remember this event," she says.

"Moreover, although the supremely engineered bicycle can be considered an artwork, it does not, in itself, offer scope to our specialist art and design business as a theme for an art show. So works have been assembled in which the bicycle is incidental, in some way or other, to the main theme of the piece."

Running from tomorrow until September 20, The Incidental Bicycle will combine striking conceptual pieces from the Pop Art era with contemporary interpretations of the theme by some of York’s best artists of today. Work by Ferdinand Léger, John Nash, Colin Self, Colin Lanceley and their contemporaries will rub shoulders with pieces by Ruth King, Peter Heaton, Elizabeth Mason and Michael Kirkman and friends.

Nash’s Harvesting, where the bicycle appears propped up in a field of corn, will be on display alongside Lanceley’s prize-winning Pop Art images of The Miraculous Mandarin Suite of 1968. "These works are composed around found objects, including bicycle parts, and additionally there will be works from Self’s Harlequin Series, Flight Into Egypt, which juxtapose abstracted, pyramidal forms with miniature cigarette cards of bicycles," says Janette.

Mason has made a specifically designed mobile for Janette's premises in Bootham, themed around transport, and King has styled a pot around the theme of the modern bicycle helmet. Alongside their three-dimensional works will be photographs by Heaton and works on paper by Anthony Gross, Robert Rauschenberg, Léger and Kirkman and friends.

The exhibition will begin with a private view by invitation from 6pm to 8pm tomorrow, when drinks will be served. Otherwise, the works can be seen during shop hours, from Wednesdays to Saturdays, 9.30am to 5.30pm. Prices for the works range from £100 to £1,500.