Title: Sex Design Author: Max Rippon, editor Publisher: Collins Design Publish Date: 2006 Pages: 166 Genres:: Erotic Art, Compilation, Non-Fiction, Pop culture Reviewer: Chris R. Morgan

Rating:

I'll admit that I'm a sucker for aesthetics. While a good many among the masses will take little notice of the imagination and discipline of design, I can't help but appreciate the immense achievements that have stemmed from the commercial arts. One hundred sixty-six pages might not seem like much, but I can assure you that Max Rippon has collected an extensive selection of the most innovative and provocative workings that combine sex and the visual media.

While provocative, challenging and morally flexible could describe the book as a whole, the artwork should not be limited to that, however true they may be. The book takes examples from the worlds of fashion, visual art, furniture, accessories, products, etc. These works can have such adjectives tagged to them as: elegant, campy, clever, humorous and pretty. Sight is a key word in all art obviously, but Sex Design is a special case. Any simple oral or written description would do no service to the art or the potential viewer. How could anyone truly describe a computer mouse shaped like a slender woman's torso, matches with tips shaped like condoms, phallic road signs, removable shower heads shaped into hands, and those are some of the easier ones.

From the variety of artists that are found within the pages, there are a few that stuck out in my mind as particularly eye catching. Julian Murphy's work, referred in the book as Tantric Pop Art, takes familiar products and items and renders them in a sexual context. Her piece Vessel Virgins are two bottles, one based on the obscure Virgin Cola (the brand put out by Virgin and used in a gay marriage commercial for some reason) and the other a parody of Evian, in this case spelt Naive. Both are shaped like male and female with genitalia represented by the top of a soda can and the spout of a water bottle. Furniture designer Mario Philiponna has a bit of a lower body fetish as his chairs and tables are held up by shapely female legs. The one exception is the wine case shaped like a pair of breasts.

Being that this is a sex collection, it would be hard not to include some art that delves in the playground of the subversive. Samples of R. Crumb's controversial comix artwork are featured with his trademark drawings of women with overly toned legs and large asses and grotesque self-caricature. Guerilla street art from Belgian group Cum changes the context of racy advertising with simple portraits of softcore and hardcore imagery in public areas but without a recognizable corporate label. Skateboard designer, tattoo and graffiti artist Mike Giant combines sleek pinup imagery, yoga and fashion-heavy punk rock in his drawings which put any flesh-and-blood SucideGirl to shame.

There are many more examples that I can name that are as interesting as those. In general, the works assembled in this book are simply stunning, peculiar and likely to be incredibly expensive. For the cultured playboy or girl, this book, and perhaps some of the items in the book are must-haves for the ones most forward thinking in desire and design.