Inoue has produced illustrations both for Japanese books and European books in translation, including André Pieyre de Mandiargues’ Le musée noir, Jean Cassou’s Les harmonies viennoises, Inga Ābele’s High Tide, and a volume of Joyce Mansour’s poems. In addition he has produced several hundred bookplates, and a growing collection of engravings incorporating French and English poetry, Christina Rosetti and Edgar Allan Poe being among his favourite poets.

Several limited edition collections of his prints were published in the 1980s and 90s, but it was the expanded collection published by Gakuha Miyakokan in 2003, titled in trademark French fashion Belles filles (Beautiful Girls), which introduced his work to a wider audience. The cover text entices the reader with the promise of ‘a sweet and elegant erotic feast filled with the scent of immorality.’

We have included here many of the copper engravings from Belles filles, together with a wide and representative selection of Inoue’s other work.