In 1970, John Lennon (1940-1980) created his iconic Bag One portfolio, a set of 14 signed and numbered lithographs that chronicles his and Yoko’s wedding and honeymoon and which includes erotic imagery of Yoko. The portfolio was first exhibited on January 15, 1970 at the London Arts Gallery. Scotland Yard raided the opening and confiscated eight of the 14 works on the grounds of indecency and charged the gallery owner, Eugene Schuster, with corrupting morals.
John and Yoko, knowing that their March 20, 1969 marriage would be a huge press event, decided to use the publicity to promote world peace. They spent their honeymoon in the presidential suite at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel for a week inviting the world's press into their hotel room every day between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. The press expected to see them having sex but instead the couple were sitting in bed, wearing pajamas—in John's words "like angels"—talking about peace with signs over their bed reading "Hair Peace" and "Bed Peace". After seven days, they flew to Vienna, Austria, where they held a Bagism press conference.

The intent of Bagism was to satirize prejudice and stereotyping. "Bagism" involved literally wearing a bag over one's entire body. According to John and Yoko, by living in a bag, a person could not be judged on the basis of skin color, gender, hair length, attire, age, or any other such attributes. In a bag, you can achieve “total communication."