Believing that within the art market authorship had become more important than the artwork itself, at various times Bruce Conner refused to sign his artworks, signed them with blood, or his thumbprint.

In 1999, he announced his retirement from the art world, though Conner-like inkblot drawings soon began appearing under the signatures of Emily Feather, Anonymous and Anonymouse. Explaining that he had trained and paid these artists to make and exhibit artwork, Conner commended their decision to remain anonymous as it validated his goal of disrupting norms of artistic authorship and identity.