Venus as a Boy

July 7, 2009

A deluxe artist’s edition. with illustrations by Leonor Fini, of the 1884 novel by the decadent writer, Rachilde.
The images from this edition (Editions d’Art Agori, 1972) express just a hint of the complicated, soap opera-level plot that starts with a young woman, cross-dressing as a man, who takes a male lover who cross-dresses as a woman. Throw in drugs, prostitution and a bit of necrophila and you have a snapshot of what constituted the wildest urges of the decadent movement.