The Hidden World Of America’s Handmade Pornography
“To live among the handmade,” philosopher and antiques dealer Leon Rosenstein once said, “is to live among the human.”
Soldiers used spent shells and casings to make trench art, like this brass bottle opener that was made during World War II.
Michael Riordan, CC BY-SA
Well, there’s nothing more human than handmade pornography.
When you hear “pornography,” you might think of Playboy and Penthouse, X-rated movies and internet porn.
But one type that has been largely hidden and forgotten is the pornography people make for themselves. Unlike pornography for profit, handmade pornography is crude and funny and subtle. It, too, contains multitudes.
Over the past decade, I’ve visited archives and museums, met with collectors and antiques dealers, and talked with artists and scholars to reconst...