Bush's highly detailed boy next door-style depictions of men made him one of the most notable artists of the era of beefcake magazines.

He took up illustration as a pastime during the war; he was a self-trained artist who had previously taken only one community college drawing class.

[3][7] Bush remained closeted for the majority of his life due to a persistent fear that he would be outed and subsequently lose his veteran's pension; despite this, he never worked under a pseudonym, and signed all of his art with his own name.

[5] Bush typically drew nudes of boy next door-style males in homoerotic or explicitly sexual scenarios.

His works have been noted for their high degree of detail and realism, contrasting the more cartoonish styles of his contemporaries such as Tom of Finland.