Aphrodisiac: Erotic Drawings

I had never heard of this effort until I saw it in a used book store. Well, now I know, and I'm glad of it. This collaboration places passagess from Nin's diaries next to Boyce's exciting line drawings. The images don't illustrate the text in any literal way. Instead they depict the same general spirit as Nin's writing, happy, articulate, and very physical. Most drawings appear one to a page or two-page spread. That large scale helps the viewer extract all the detail from these delightful renderings. Although the larger forms of each drawing are easy to read, details sometimes take a little effort to pick out. These sensual and overtly sexual drawings are worth the effort. Boyce's style shows many influences; imagine figures from Beatles-era Peter Max psychedelia (this book comes from the mid 1970s, after all) drawn with Aubrey Beardsley's pen. Now add more of the Art Nouveau flow, and a Cubist's tendency to put multiple moments and perspectives into each image. Then let these surreal figures become willowy, not just in their long lines, but also in willow's rubbery flexibility. The drawings pair well with Nin's energetic if oblique eroticism. In geometry, an "oblique" can can also be obtuse; in the limit, an obtuse angle becomes a flat line. Unfortunately, the analogy sometimes holds. Parts of Nin's indirection lose me; her oblique descriptions occasionally become obtuse and occasionally fall flat. Even so, this collection conveys warm and eager eroticism in both ways, verbal and visual. The intensity never becomes harsh; it's a gentle kind of power between happy participants. The pictures become explicit at times, but (like Nin's writing) engage the imagination as well. Enjoy! -- wiredweird