The Singular Art of Julian Murphy

When viewing Murphy's exquisitely airbrushed trompe l'úil images, the libido, not just the eye, is tricked. However, in Julian Murphy's strange, Escher-like world, there is compensatory humour as well - and enough sexual complexity to give Freud nightmares.

Arch erotic double-entendres abound in this superb coffee-table book with a difference which puts a new twist on household objects such as two Swiss Army knives, a high-heeled shoe and an electric plug. These appear ordinary enough at first, but a closer look reveals something bizarre and entirely different. The fetish element is applied with both skill and wit. The Swiss Army knives are a couple, the male subservient to the female, corkscrew attachment erect. The high-heeled shoe is another couple, latex-clad and fused in an embrace; the workings of a plug are two girls bound in soixante-neuf position:

'Being surprised by art is a genuine rarity these days but, judging by the facial expressions of those shown in this book, it's a trick Murphy has pulled off.'       Design Week

This first book publication of a body of work by Julian Murphy is an enigma within a paradox - or perhaps it is just a riddle. It breaks new ground yet necessarily follows a tradition of art that is thousands of years old. It plumbs the depths of human depravity with the very lightest of irony. Its extremely stylish restraint unleashes a most powerful erotic force.

'A collection of ingenious and witty designs tracing the fetishistic subtext in household utensils.'       New Statesman