Money Matters: A Critical Look at Bank Architecture surveys the history and cultural significance of bank architecture, focusing on bank architecture as a building typology rather than in the context of a single architect or architectural firm. Challenging the standard notion that bank buildings are repetitive, dull and conservative, the exhibition reveals banks as patrons of architectural innovation, whose buildings possess vital communicative power.

Eleven photographers were specially commissioned to give their interpretative points of view on these banking icons. The photographers include Robert Bourdeau, Edward Burtynsky, David Duchow, and David Miller from Canada as well as Marilyn Bridges, James Iska, Len Jenshel, John Pfahl, George Tice, Catherine Wagner and Serge Hambourg from the United States. Historical photographs by master photographers Berenice Abbott, Charles Pratt, Paul Strand, and John Szarkowski supplement the exhibition.

Money Matters travelled to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Chicago Historical Society, the Vancouver Museum, the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, and the National Building Museum, Washington, DC.

Organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Parnassus Foundation.
Curated by Anne Tucker, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, with Susan Wagg.