Madonna’s infamous coffee table photo-book, simply called ‘Sex’, shocked the world when it was released worldwide on October 21, 1992. Madonna, already best-known for her controversial tendencies, broke all boundaries with this book - no other mainstream artist had revealed him- or herself in such ways before.

All photgraphs were taken by Steven Meisel. It’s no surprise that Meisel was responsible for taking the pictures as he had a very close friendship with Madonna and they obviously both inspired eachother very much. He was also responsible for the cover of Madonna’s 1984 album Like A Virgin and photographed most of Madonna’s photos in the early ’90s. Meisel was in the ’90s what Herb Ritts was to Madonna in the ’80s as they both created some of the most iconic and memorable photos of Madonna.

All text appearing in the book is written by Madonna herself, however most of it is written from the point-of-view from the ficitional character Dita (inspired by silent film star Dita Parlo) - a character appearing several times in Madona’s work in the years 1992 and 1993. As Dita, she writes about her feelings, longings and her lust for sex. Mostly this is written in a letter-style to a fictional character called Johnny.

Everything was and still is special about this book: It came packaged in a sealed silver mylar-wrapping showing an image of Madonna. The book itself comes with spiralbounded metalcovers with the word ‘Sex’ embossed on the front and a punched ‘X’ on the back. Each copy of the book comes with an individual embossed number on the back. Also enclosed with the book is a Photo-Comic called ‘Dita in the Chelsea Girl’ and a CD Promo-Copy of the song Erotic (which is a remix of Erotica featuring alternate lyrics).

Other celebrities featured in the book are (selection): Isabella Rossellini, Udo Kier, Naomi Campbell, Ingrid Casares, Joey Stefano, Big Daddy Kane, Tony Ward and Rapper Vanilla Ice.

Several organizations tried to boycott the sale of the book but it still managed to sell a stunning 150′000 copies in one day just in the USA. All 1.5 Million copies of the book were sold out worldwide in just a couple of days making it the worldwide most successful coffe table book every released!

The book is long out-of-print and therefore a sought-after collector’s item nowadays. It’s often difficult to find a copy in good condition so collector’s have to pay between US$ 150-200 for a good copy. Of course the ‘Sex’-Book is a must-have item for every serious Madonna-Fan and Collector!

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