Best of Bizarre

Taschen's collection, sampled from issues of John Willie's BIZARRE, is a delighful look back at the work of a man who was in the forefront of eroding the 1950's, Ozzie and Harriet, twin-beds-in-the dark, missionary-style attitudes about sexuality. Back in the day, this was hot stuff, 'the-kind-men-like', (pre-Playboy) underground publishing. But be warned, it's a book more from historians than personal titillation. Our sense of 'what's shocking' has evolved so far that the average PG-13 movie probably eclipses any page in BIZARRE. One is left with a sense of 'what-was-all-the-shouting-about', yet John Willie was constantly skirmishing with the U.S.Post Office about whether BIZARRE was too pornagraphic to be sent through the mails. It's all here: dark, but still innocent, an opening salvo in the sexual revolution. It's a one-of-a-kind show. Don't miss it.