Editor’s Note:
Welcome to Erotic Dreamscapes, a new series devoted to the geography of desire: erotic bodies, forbidden fantasies, intimate mythologies, strange museums, sensual archives, hidden galleries, imaginary shrines and artistic pilgrimages dedicated to pleasure in all its forms.
Fig 1 Bodyscapes/ Dunescapes 2, Images © Lynn Paula Russell, Text © Stefan Prince Artists of 'O' #8 Story of O Blog; Erotic art illustrator Lynn Paula Russell (aka adult films actress Paula Meadows) started painting these large coloured canvases in the late 1980s, and selections appeared in the two anthologies of her work published by The Erotic Print Society in 1997 and 2000
Fig 2 Art Installation by Russian artist Ebecho Muslimova, large-scale Fatebe Specere Mural (2022) for the exhibition Fun Feminism at the Kunstmuseum Basel (September 2022 – March 2023). The piece was created in-situ using acrylic on wall and oil on canvas/muslin
Part travel diary, part pop-cultural excavation, part erotic anthropology and slang etymology, this series follows the adventures of a sensual cartographer wandering through real and fictional spaces of desire — from underground fetish exhibitions and surrealist collections to vulva temples, erotic cinemas, digital dreamlands and AI-generated fantasy worlds.
This is not pornography disguised as art, nor is it prudish academia pretending sexual desire does not exist. It is a personal exploration of the erotic imagination as culture, symbolism, performance and art history. Pack lightly. Leave shame at customs.
Fig 3 Sylvia Sleigh, Eleanor Antin, 1968 Oil on canvas via Artsy ('More recently, female body hair has gained a political resonance as many women today forego shaving as a feminist or fashion statement. Her 1968 portrait of artist Eleanor Antin shows her reclining, odalisque-style, on a couch, unperturbed by her prominent patch of dark pubic hair' - Source: Artsy art blog)
SIDE SALAD: A Dirty Little Etymology for Erotic Dreamscapes
Muff-Diving, Forbidden Fur and the Secret Lives of Words
One of the great pleasures of language is discovering that words we thought were modern, vulgar or casually invented are often ancient little survivors carrying centuries of cultural baggage inside them like linguistic time capsules. Erotic slang, especially, behaves like an underground railway system of civilization: secretive, inventive, funny, scandalous and unexpectedly poetic.
Fig 4/5 Winter,1882 by Spanish painter Francesc Masriera i Manovens (painting of a woman using a fur hand-warmer) Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain / Reproduction print of a 1920s France La Vie Parisienne Magazine Plate - La Revanche D'Eve. Designed by Chéri Hérouard.
Muff. The word sounds unmistakably retro — somewhere between underground punk slang, vintage pornography and a phrase overheard in a smoky 1970s lesbian bar. It feels tactile and furry even before one knows what it means, practically arrives already upholstered.
Muff originally referred not to anatomy at all, but to a fashionable winter accessory, the soft tubular hand-warmer used primarily by women from the sixteenth century onward, like those elegant ladies strolling through snowy European streets with their hands tucked inside luxurious fur cylinders like decadent human marshmallows (as if the erotic metaphor was sitting in front of civilization’s face the entire time - lexicographer Peter Sokolowski observed that the most astonishing word origins are often the ones hiding in plain sight; and once you see an antique muff, the linguistic transition becomes impossible to unsee.)
Fig 6 Titian's Venus with a Mirror (c. 1555), currently housed in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C, masterpiece of the Venetian High Renaissance (from which Sacher-Masoch's Severin gets the idea of Venus in Furs) via Wikimedia
Fig 7 Illustration for Venus in Furs by Austrian author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, artwork from 2013 of London-based artist Sardax, contemporary illustrator known as femdom artist (short for female dominance) via Eurasian Goddess. The text was translated from the original German by Sardax, intended to be a modern rendering of the 1870 classic 'Venus im Pelz'. The framing story concerns a man who dreams of speaking to Venus about love while she wears furs (Wikipedia)
Erotic slang also reveals something deeper about human psychology: people enjoy saying words that feel slightly dangerous in the mouth. Muff is phonetically satisfying. So is cunt. So is pussy. These words carry texture, breath, pressure, friction.
(Linguists sometimes discuss “sound symbolism” — the idea that certain sounds evoke emotional or sensory associations independent of literal meaning. Erotic slang exploits this constantly. Soft consonants, wet vowels, abrupt stops: sexual vocabulary often sounds almost performative, as though language itself is flirting. Which helps explain why clinical terminology rarely dominates erotic writing. Very few people whisper “vulva” with genuine erotic abandon.)
Fig 8/9 The Erotic Atmosphere of Shafei Xia via Collater.al Courtesy Shafei Xia, contemporary feminist artist born in China, established in Australia / Nude beautiful girl in fantasy animal fur with fighting leopard, deer, fox and cock, oil on canvas created by artist Andrew Merenko in 2011 via Saatchi Art
Language is rarely innocent. Especially when it comes to the female body. Few words in the English language carry as much emotional, political and erotic baggage as cunt, pussy, vagina or vulva. Clinical terminology collides with slang, obscenity with empowerment, affection with insult. Every generation reinvents its own erotic dictionary.
Though contemporary writers and feminist artists increasingly reclaim medical terminology precisely because it resists centuries of shame and euphemism. To name the body directly becomes its own radical act.
Fig 10/11 The erotic art of Lulu Amere via Naughty Business Report NBR Plaza Blog / Kate O'Brien and Sinead King, members of the Muffia, in London in 2009, UK Feminista - I love my vagina protest via Marie Claire France Magazine '
In negligees and with pubic hairpieces glued to their pubic areas, they march down Harley Street, the London street known for its clinics of all kinds, chanting "Hands off my bush!" and "I love my vagina!" … They are the Muffia girls (a play on words between "muff," slang for pussy, and "mafia"), audacious activists from UK Feminista, who organize Muff Marches to denounce the trend of cosmetic surgery on the female genitalia - a new obsession with the perfection of women's bodies, directly inspired by pornographic culture'
The Sound of Dirtiness: The Sex Blogger and Pillow Dirty Talks
“Pussy felt too cutesy,” writes Molly Moore. “Cunt is such a strong word, more confronting and demanding.” The statement feels less like vulgarity and more like reclamation. Language is evolving alongside flesh, and desire is transforming alongside confidence.
Writer, photograph artist and sex blogger Molly Moore captures this beautifully in her reflections about ageing, sexuality and bodily ownership. Once, her body had a “pussy”, which later became a “cunt” of a menopausal woman. Not because the word softened with time, but because she hardened into herself — bolder, louder, less apologetic.
The above is an excerpt of the exclusive publication that can be found in our Premium section that includes the following additional paragraphs:
- Welcome to The Muff Museum & Pussy Art Gallery
- Full Bushes & Forbidden Gardens. A Pictorial History of Pussy Hair, Art and Panic
- Final Stop: The Museum Gift Shop
- 66 additional pics
- and also future chapters
Click HERE for the publication "Viva La Vulva: When Erotica Meets Sacred Art"
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