This Book Has a Picture of Vivienne Westwood’s Penis
Artist Dominic Myatt is raising money for charity with dick pics – over 60 of them. Myatt's new book Penile Papers features varied interpretations of the male anatomy from contributors such as Vivienne Westwood, Nick Knight, and Andreas Kronthaler.
Speaking to Highsnobiety, Myatt tells us how he assembled a list of would-be dick drawers to represent a more well-rounded view on the penis through society's eyes. "I wanted to try and make it quite varied and diverse," says Myatt, "and while there is a number of artists and designers included, there are also people from outside that world such as my friends Grandma, customers from a sex club I used to work at, a call centre operator, a debt management consultant, and a pub landlady, to name a few. I wanted it to be less of a who’s who of the fashion and art world and more a cross-section of society."
Of course, not everyone is down with drawing a penis; this sense of contemporary societal discomfort with male nudity is highlighted by including some of the "no thanks" that came back in response to his original request for a doodle. "I was mostly interested in recording how different people would respond to the request for a drawing, and what their drawing of a penis would look like…" Myatt tells us, "which you can see by flicking through this book is anything but uniform," says Myatt, "some address the sexual nature of a penis through the drawing and others just abstract the shape and are quite playful with it."
As with most successful breechings of taboo subjects, Myatt retains a sense of humor throughout – including the book itself which is printed according to specific dimensions (11.6 x 13.1 cm) to approximate the length of the average penis.
100 per cent of the profits from Penile Papers will be split equally between the Terrence Higgins Trust, a British charity that provides services relating to HIV and sexual health, and the Runnymede Trust, the UK's leading independent race equality think tank.
You can order a copy here.