Perez Seves, Richard: Eric Stanton & the History of the Bizarre Underground

Tracing the rise of commercial fetish art from its shadowy beginnings in the 1940s to its acceptance in the 1970s, this illustrated biography explores the unconventional life and art of Eric Stanton, a pioneering sexual fantasist who helped shape the movement. With more than 400 rare images and interviews with Stanton’s family and closest associates, this biography chronicles the infamous circle of patrons, publishers, and cult icons populating his subterranean world, including Irving Klaw, John Willie, Bettie Page, Steve Ditko, and Gene Bilbrew. It is the untold, secret history of a misunderstood culture, the abuses of government authority, social intolerance, and gangsters. But above all, it is a tale about survival against all odds and an artist who had the courage to stay true to himself.With an amazing 50 years of underground art output to his credit, there is a solid case for claiming that Eric Stanton had, by the time of his death in 1999. become the most famous fetish artist in the world. And that case is nowhere more convincingly made than by fetish art enthusiast and historian Richard Pérez Seves in his eagerly awaited Stanton biography, Eric Stanton & The History of the Bizarre Underground. Into the 288 pages of this 7 x 10in junior A4-sized hardback, Pérez Seves packs the most exhaustive examination of Stantons life and work including more than 400 colour and b&w images attempted by any writer. But as its full title implies, this book is much more than just an Eric Stanton biography. Because of the many overlapping circles Stanton moved in, it is actually an impressively forensic record of an entire era often referred to as the golden age of fetish publishing. - Tony Mitchell, TheFetishistas.com Jan 2019