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Sex Appeal: The Art of Allure in Graphic and Advertising Design

edited by Steven Heller.
Allworth Press, New York, NY, U.S.A., 2000.
ISBN: 1-58115-048-2.
Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens, Department of Art, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA 50613-0362, U.S.A. E-mail: ballast@netins.net


Like it or not, prurient illustration (of whatever inclination), erotic advertising and sexual innuendo are parts of the province of graphic design, substantial and increasing parts. Nearly all sexually provocative or "graphic" material in our society is produced by people whose occupations may include illustrator, photographer, advertising artist, and graphic designer. This book features essays and interviews on the various dimensions of that subject, written by 35 designers, theorists, historians, and others, among them Johanna Drucker, Ralph Caplan, Veronique Vienne, and Ralph Ginzburg. It is a varied and frank exploration, offering a wide range of concerns and opinions (with sections on Animal Magnetism; Sex as Metaphor; Chic Sex; Sex, Power, Feminism; Sexual Progress; and Talking Sex), and using language and photographs that are both well-chosen and unrestrained. This is a thought-provoking collection, in large part because of the universality of the subject matter, but also because of the rarity with which these issues are ever discussed from an earnest (if not always serious) point of view. (Reprinted by permission from Ballast Quarterly Review 15, No. 4, Summer 2000.)







Updated 13 September 2000.




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