SEX
Madonna · Steven Meisel · first UK edition · complete original package
1992 · ★ Gold Star object
Madonna’s landmark 1992 erotic photography book, conceived as a deliberately provocative multimedia art object in collaboration with photographer Steven Meisel and designer Fabien Baron. This is the first British edition published by Martin Secker & Warburg, ISBN 0-436-27084-6, with embossed rear serial 0897902.
Read the catalogue note →- Condition
- Very Good overall; the aluminium-covered book presents strongly with intact spiral binding and light surface/edge wear, while the original Mylar outer wrapper shows substantially more creasing, crumpling and edge wear from opening and storage.
- Completeness
- Complete as confirmed by the owner and supplied photographs: book, original silver Mylar outer wrapper, original “Erotic” CD single in its metallic packet, and bound-in 8-page “Dita in The Chelsea Girl” comic insert are all present.
Catalogue note
Madonna’s landmark 1992 erotic photography book, conceived as a deliberately provocative multimedia art object in collaboration with photographer Steven Meisel and designer Fabien Baron. This is the first British edition published by Martin Secker & Warburg, ISBN 0-436-27084-6, with embossed rear serial 0897902. The copy retains the fragile original silver Mylar wrapper, the exclusive “Erotic” CD single and the bound-in “Dita in The Chelsea Girl” comic, making it materially complete. Its combination of celebrity authorship, fashion photography, graphic design, sexual politics and unconventional industrial book production made SEX one of the defining publishing objects of the early 1990s.
Credit / attribution note: Created by Madonna. Photographed by Steven Meisel Studio; designed by Baron & Baron, Inc., led by Fabien Baron; edited by Glenn O'Brien; produced by Callaway Editions, Inc. The photographed colophon also credits styling by Paul Cavaco, hair by Garren, makeup by François Nars, production by Keeble Cavaco & Duka, and specialist photographic printing/production contributors. UK publication: Martin Secker & Warburg Limited, an imprint of Reed Consumer Books Limited.
Why this object matters
The original British SEX package retains book, Mylar wrapper, CD and comic, preserving its deliberate multimedia form. The continuing exhibition and re-edition history reinforces exceptional photography, design and sexual-cultural significance. 9.6 retains very high Gold while allowing for its mass-issued status and documented wrapper wear.
Evidence limits: No new physical inspection or collation was performed. Copy-specific conclusions remain limited to the retained catalogue and accession evidence.
Score and assessment method
Archive Importance: 9.6 / 10 · Gold Star.
This is a curatorial judgement, not a measurement accurate to one tenth or a market valuation. Read the explanation and its evidence limits together.
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