n°12 — A review: Poster of a Girl, Revue Emmanuelle.

Author: Catherine Guiral & Sarah Vadé

In the first half of the 17th century, French doctor Théophraste Renaudot launched a periodical, La Gazette. In it appeared the first “advertisements.” The initial meaning given to this term was that of rendering something public, and Renaudot, a man of multiple pursuits, endeavored then to apply his adage: “For just as ignorance dares desire, since it is impossible to desire what one does not know, even the knowledge of things makes us envious.”

         These syllogistic and paradoxical relationships between the stimulation of desire, masked ignorance, and longing lead to the exploration of the tensions that exist between audience, advertising, and eroticism. Leaning on the appearance of so-called “porno” magazines, and in particular the magazine Emmanuelle (launched by éditions Opta—Office de Publicité Technique et Artistique—in 1974), Poster of a Girl undresses “heroic masculinity,” to use the expression of philosopher Paul B. Preciado, all while exploring what could be a “magazine of pleasure” (the subtitle of Emmanuelle) in the stark light of contemporary techniques of dressing.*

          To open up Emmanuelle is, then, to open up a set of vanishing lines, from a print revolution to a cultural revolution, unveiling forms that are skilled, mercantile, or critical, the very forms in which Eros drapes himself.

* — October 13^th, 2015, Le Monde published an article about Playboy abandoning full nudity on the cover of its magazine, called “Playboy rhabille ses playmates” (“Playboy dresses its playmates”). The notion of being dressed is certainly quite close to that of being covered. It does however lead to thinking around the idea of parergon, of adornment, and also of armor as habillemens, from the ancient French word for clothing, etymologically the engine, the weapon, the war machine. What new techniques of diversion and feinting does “rhabillement” (“dressing”) name?

About Revue Faire

Adopting an analytical and critical posture with regard to the forms and activities of Graphic Design, Sacha Léopold and François Havegeer established in 2017 a printed publication that deals with these practices. The publication works with eight authors (Lise Brosseau, Manon Bruet, Thierry Chancogne, Céline Chazalviel, Jérôme Dupeyrat, Catherine Guiral, Étienne Hervy and Sarah Vadé).