THE BODY EXPOSED: Views of the Body; 150 Years of the Nude in Photography

Zurich: Edition Stemmle, 1995. Boards in dust jacket. Light shelfwear. Very Good. 4to. 208pp. The catalogue to the exhbition Das Aktfoto, surveying 150 years of nude photography. Examining every aspect of representation of the nude - from aerly piquantries and naughty postcards, through Pictorialism, Classic Glamour, advertising and pornography, this book makes clear two things: that photographs of nudes have always been more than "beautiful photographs of beautiful women" - and that the conventional distinction between tastefulness and the tasteless has outlived its usefulness. From their grounding in social history, Views of the Body calls attention to an intriguing chapter in cultural history, for the array of nudes reproduced here may also be regarded as a kind of inventory of the collective fantasies of the body in our era.