SPBN (self publish, be naughty). Limited Edition

SPBN is a book about love/sex/desire/lust/intimacy created with the help of Self Publish, Be Happy’s extended network of contributors. In the spirit of SP,BH’s collective ethos, a call for submissions for “naughty” pictures was launched in March 2011. More than 5,000 photographs from around the world were submitted, by both established artists and young up-and-coming practitioners.

SPBN showcases 122 of these photographs by 75 different artists. The photographs, presented in a continuous flux, offer a powerful and uncompromising exploration of contemporary approaches to the themes of sex, desires and taboos within photography. From the surreal to the mundane, from the allusive to the graphic, the images challenge the tradition of erotic photobooks and their very ghettoised approach to desires.

Printed in a limited edition of 1,000, each copy of SPBN is unique; art director Antonio de Luca has designed a beautiful ever-changing book, a collection of A4 posters (in the manner of Playboy centrefolds), bound together with a removable elastic band. Each copy will have an accidental sequence of pages, an echo of the fragmented and subversive nature of desire. SPBN will also include a selection of texts (from Plato’s Phaedrus to erotic stories anonymously posted online), and, like an old porn newsletter, will come in a discreet black envelope.