Annette Messager, Les Tortures Volontaires (1972), 2013

Collector's edition by Hatje Cantz. Luxury handmade clamshell box, 25.6 x 33.5 x 4 cm, containing a softcover book, 92 pp. with texts by Messager in German, English, French, plus 2 gelatin-silver prints in passe-partout. Unique prints, sheet size 19 x 14 cm each, signed and dated 2013 on an inserted card.

French artist Annette Messager's (1943-) series 'Les Tortures Volontaires' (The voluntary tortures) from 1972 deals with the manifold procedures that women submit themselves to in order to look more 'beautiful', as promoted in magazines (such as breasts lifted by suction cups, thighs massaged with electricity). The series consists of 81 works of which there are 40 diptychs produced as gelatin-silver prints. Each motif has been printed only once and exclusively for Edition Gerd Hatje. Mint copy.