by John Waters
First published 2016
This oversized collector's edition presents six decades of work by Touko Laaksonen, the Finnish artist who created under the name Tom of Finland. The volume gathers over 1,000 images from collections across the United States and Europe, including drawings, paintings, and sketches never before reproduced. Many images appear in their intended sequential order for the first time, revealing the full artistic and erotic impact Laaksonen planned. The collection spans his complete range, from intimate portraits to explicit sexual scenes to tender love stories to memorials for young men lost to AIDS. Eight commissioned essays by writers including Camille Paglia, John Waters, Armistead Maupin, and Todd Oldham explore Tom's social and personal influence. Art historian Edward Lucie-Smith provides scholarly analysis of individual works. This edition makes the complete Tom of Finland XXL accessible at a fraction of the original price while preserving all content in the same substantial format.
Genres: biography, art, erotica, gay-fiction
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, intimate
Setting: Europe, Finland, United States
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
664 pages · Hardcover · TASCHEN
Content warnings: explicit-sexual-content