Softcover (with rubberband).

SPBN is a book about love/sex/desire/lust/intimacy created with the help of Self Publish, Be Happy’s extended network of contributors. In the spirit of SP,BH’s collective ethos, a call for submissions for “naughty” pictures was launched in March 2011. More than 5,000 photographs from around the world were submitted, by both established artists and young up-and-coming practitioners.

SPBN showcases 122 of these photographs by 75 different artists. The photographs, presented in a continuous flux, offer a powerful and uncompromising exploration of contemporary approaches to the themes of sex, desires and taboos within photography. From the surreal to the mundane, from the allusive to the graphic, the images challenge the tradition of erotic photobooks and their very ghettoised approach to desires.

Printed in a limited edition of 1,000, each copy of SPBN is unique; art director Antonio de Luca has designed a beautiful ever-changing book, a collection of A4 posters (in the manner of Playboy centrefolds), bound together with a removable elastic band. Each copy will have an accidental sequence of pages, an echo of the fragmented and subversive nature of desire. SPBN will also include a selection of texts (from Plato’s Phaedrus to erotic stories anonymously posted online), and, like an old porn newsletter, will come in a discreet black envelope.

Contributors: Joseph Akel, Morten Andersen, Brendan Baker, Corey Bartle-Sanderson, Ilya Batrakov, Lucas Blalock, Anna Bogutskaya, Parker Bright, Jake Brooks, Victor Cobo, Martina Corà, Christopher Day, Michael J. DeMeo, Bobby Doherty, Laëtitia Donval, Daniel Evans, Dora Fobert, Hannah Godley, Dana Goldstein, Roberto Greco, Tomas Hein, Åsa Johannesson, Ellen Jong, Ellen Jong and Kate Ruth, Jake Kenny, Paul Knight, Paul Kooiker, Paul Kwiatkowski, Alexander Kurmaz, Collin LaFleche, Mathieu Lambert, Bertrand Le Pluard, Nicole Lesser, Carrie Levy, Thomas Mailaender, Tommy Malekoff, Jennilee Marigomen, Aaron McElroy, Michael Max McLeod, Leah Meltzer, Matthew Mili, Ania Mokrzycka, Kristie Muller, Francesco Nazardo, Luke Norman and Nik Adam, Florian Oellers, Sean Orena, Witek Orski, Oliver Poddar and Andrew Ferguson, Angga Pratama, Karol Radziszewski, Pedro Ramos, Tobias Rose, Davi Russo, Corinna Sauer, Kirill Savchenkov, David Schoerner, Alexander Sedelnikov, Ben Seeley, Oliver Sieber, Pacifico Silano, Marija Strajnic, RJ Shaughnessy, Matthew Tammaro, Aram Tanis, Agnes Thor, Scott Treleaven, Sophie van der Perre, Erik van der Weijde, Marnix van Uum, Peter Voelker, Alex Wein, Harley Weir, Emily Yost, Irina Yulieva.