Monday, May 19, 2014

Jean Genet Illustrated Gay Rarity Paris 1945




One of the rarest books from the world of illustrated homosexual erotica is Vingt lithographies pour un livre que j'ai lu. Text attributed to Jean Genet Illustrations by Roland Cailleux. Anonymously published, mythical book of gay erotica Paris,1945. A limited edition of only 115 numbered copies with text (poems by Genet) and illustrations way ahead of its time with unselfconscious depictions of gay love, lust and erotic imagery. Beautifully designed typography and mise-en-page; twenty finely printed full-page illustrations, many sexually explicit, by Cailleux.  

The author and artist are not mentioned in the book, however it has been established by French booksellers with expertise in this area of specialization (ref: the exceptional 2005 catalogue Archives gai [item #455] by Parisian bookseller, Chez les Libraires Associes, Jacques Desse and Alain Causse) that this is the work of Genet and Cailleux. Not in Pia (bibliography of illustrated erotic books) and at the time of the CLA catalogue, not in the Bibliotheque National de France.


Click any image to enlarge









No comments:

Post a Comment