Chair sanglée, ou les voluptés fétichistes (Strapped Flesh, or The Fetishist Voluptuaries) is the inside story of a fetish establishment specialising in whips and tall leather boots. ‘Grégor Yvan’ is the pseudonym of an author specialising in fetishist texts, who also wrote Les trente leçons d’amour, par une dègènèrèe (The Thirty Lessons of Love, by a Degenerate), La sensuelle Monique (Sensual Monique), and Cruelle despot (Cruel Despot).

The illustrations appear to be by a new ‘Wighead’, whose style is photo-realist and focused on the textures of skin and leather. Unfortunately the printing technique of the time means that the monochrome illustrations have lost some of their impact, but they are nonetheless striking. The opening capital letters for the chapters demonstrate a particular mastery of composition, and many of the inline illustrations use shaped borders which are cleverly interspersed with the text.

Chair sanglée, ou les voluptés fétichistes was published by Le Jardin d’Éros.

We are grateful to Steve Mullins of the Olympia Press website (www.parisolympiapress.com) for these illustrations.