Goliath Books’ Marquis De Sade 100 Erotic Illustrations Vintage Erotic Edition. Supplied
From the man who inspired the words sadist and sadism, Marquis De Sade is still garnering morbid fascination with readers long after his death 204 years ago.
German indie publisher Goliath Books has published a collection of Marquis De Sade’s commissioned erotic illustrations: Marquis De Sade 100 Erotic Illustrations Vintage Erotic Edition.
But why does a controversial figure such as De Sade intrigue contemporary audiences?
Accused of rape and pedophilia, De Sade was imprisoned for his erotic writings and libertine novels such as Justine, the Misfortunes of Virtue, and The 120 Days of Sodom.
Shocking society at the time with his debaucherous lifestyle, De Sade was sentenced to death in 1814 by Napoleon Bonaparte for writing erotic books Justine and Juliette. After his death, the novel Justine was ordered to be destroyed by the Cour Royale de Paris in 1815.
Since De Sade’s death artists, authors as well as psychologists have been fascinated with his work. And with the loosening of censorship laws in France De Sade’s work become widely available in the 1950s.
Illustrations commissioned by Marquis De Sade. Supplied
Miki Bunge is the owner of indie publishing company Goliath Books, he told ArtsHub: ‘We had in our collection several old Marquis De Sade books, most over 500 pages thick. In the seventies there were a few books that mainly dealt with illustrations. After we got some original illustrations, we thought it would be nice to re-publish them in a small book.’
Goliath books, located in Berlin, has a reputation of publishing diverse and at-times daring photography and art books with often controversial, erotic and subcultural perspectives.
Bunge said, ‘The illustrations have been in circulation since the 18th century. All of them are still there. But today it is assumed that some of them did not come from the same illustrator. As far as we know, we have all original artwork from this period in our book. 100 pictures from the time of Marquis de Sade. Possible, that at that time there were more. Some of his books were destroyed by himself, some by others.
‘The pictures are quite explicit, especially for that time, but still today, if not even brutal and perverse, whatever perversion may mean in a cultural context. Marquis de Sade is the personified perversion.’
www.goliathbooks.com
