Aphrodite’s Cup by Georges Kuthan
Back in 1964 or thereabouts, when I was working at the University of Toronto Library, I was fortunate to spend a few minutes with the first, privately published limited edition of Aphrodite’s Cup, before it was hidden away in the eyries of the Rare Book Department. It seemed rather naughty then, at least to someone unfamiliar with visual erotica. Now it is back again on the market, in real cloth and sewn binding, and still, of course, too expensive. It has lost none of its sexiness; but the basic wholesomeness of the late Kuthan’s lino block art has become more apparent; the pictures would not be out of place in works for liberal adolescents of all ages, such as, say, The Joy of Sex.
The drawings form a series with a very simple plot line. Aphrodite dreams of Adonis, he goes down on her, and then they copulate in a number of approved positions. He has one or two orgasms; she, judging from her placidly content facial expressions, is at least soothed. Afterwards she embarks upon another dream, not shown; end of story.
Kuthan’s work is highly skilled, knowledgeable, and possessed of a gentle humour. Each picture has a circular frame, with neo-Hellenic abstract or Slavic floral decorations. The Slavic traces in the anatomical features and in the quickly discarded scanties of Aphrodite and Adonis add a piquancy to their Hollywood good looks. She resembles a dark-haired Cybill Shepherd; and he, a moderately, i.e. averagely hung Marc Stevens, author of 1O½ and star of numerous porno flics. The humour resides in the florid exuberance of the lovers’ connections; they project an almost emblematic dedication to sexual pleasure at the eternal age of twenty-five.
His performance of cunnilingus and her reactions to it are quite thorough, the subject of four consecutive pictures — foreplay of more expertise than duration. Why does she not reciprocate in oral fashion? Sexism? Or, do goddesses not suck?
No incitement to masturbation, this is nevertheless a useful book to have around, something cheerful to look at when skies are grey. Is it art? Certainly, of a highly-crafted popular kind. And a rip-off. Wait for the inevitable paperback edition.
-S.G. Buri