Comment: You have to admire Banksy's choice of venue

For me, the real joy of Banksy's new show is not the fact that it's in Bristol, but where it is in Bristol.

The choice of venue is so appropriately Bristolian.

Banksy's spokeswoman Jo Brooks told me the artist knew Bristol Museum so well that he was able to produce a detailed layout of the show in advance.

I understand that perfectly. Like so many Bristol children, I was dragged around the museum more times than I care to remember. The building and its artifacts are now part of my psyche.

My dad loved the place, mainly because it was free. It was one of the few things which regularly took us up the hill to Clifton.

So to see the artist's brilliant work knitted into the museum seemed very fitting and – for some unknown, subconscious reason – very moving.

Let's be honest, one of the museum's greatest strengths is also one of its weaknesses. Fundamentally, it doesn't change much. I have been visiting for 40-odd years and most of the rooms and exhibits are the same.

Like in supermarkets, the stock may get moved around to try to freshen up the experience, new product lines may come and go but, essentially, nothing really changes.

So much so, that I had been worrying about the future of Bristol Museum. Just down the road, work is taking place on the new Industrial Museum – to be reopened and relaunched as the Museum of Bristol.

So, by 2011, we'll have a Museum of Bristol and a Bristol Museum.

I'm sure the council can explain the reasoning and the intricacies of this strategy. But, in a situation where we'll have two museums with very similar names – one of which is new and exciting and the other which is old and basically unchanging – there is going to be only one winner in the funding battle.

Until now, that is.

That's the real genius of Banksy's show. It has breathed new life into a Bristol institution that was about to be outdone – and probably undone – by a trendy new kid on the block.

What's really clever about the show is that it forces visitors to see every nook and cranny of the building. It is not in one place, it's everywhere. And there are no clues. You have to go into every corner of the museum, through every room, past every exhibit and painting to find Banksy's work.

Wandering around on the preview night, I found it hilarious to see Bristol and London's artistic, not-so-beautiful people forced to pay attention to the rocks and minerals in the geological section because one of them might be a Banksy.

And what a building. Those new visitors cannot fail to be impressed by the lofty, pillared main halls and the creaky, wooden-floored galleries.

It's the small details which show just how much the artist really knows the place. The gipsy caravan, for example, which every Bristolian child has gawped in at so many times, has had an eviction notice pasted on to it. I laughed out loud when I saw that. But the two people behind me assumed Banksy had brought the whole thing in.

And then there's the pilot of the box plane, which has dangled precariously above the entrance hall for decades. He is now dressed as a Guantanamo Bay detainee.

Part of Banksy's appeal is his subversion of the traditional. And there can be few more traditional museums than this one. So much so, that some of the existing exhibits could well be the work of Banksy.

I came across a group of trendy types staring in horror at the huge glass case containing a snarling, stuffed tiger, "Shot and presented by his Majesty King George V". Could it be a Banksy? No, I wanted to say to them, the King really did shoot this beautiful creature and presented its stuffed representation to the city and it has been decaying and discolouring here ever since.

Even Alfred the Gorilla and the model of the dodo started to take on Banksy-like qualities.

Speaking to the Evening Post last week, Banksy said he chose the museum because its cafe makes a good cup of tea.

That, of course, is very funny and very true, but I'm not convinced by its flippancy.

Despite the show's name, Banksy is by no means versus Bristol Museum. The exhibition betrays a deep connection with what is a wonderful place, a connection only possible in someone who has spent a lot of time there.

Whatever you might think of Banksy and his work, this summer he will achieve the seemingly impossible. He will bring queues of people from around the world to an under-appreciated, often-overlooked Bristol gem.

In the battle of Banksy versus Bristol Museum, the museum really could end up being the winner.