Celebrating Bishop 22

First of all, Bishop hasn't done much work in color, and in this piece I find his toning nothing less than perfect. This goes for the skin color as well as for the leather of the boots, and the metal tone of the pole.

Then there is the size of it. The thin wide line through the middle of the picture is there due to the fact that this was a sort of splash page: it was folded in the middle of one of the Fanni Hall books. Being twice as big as the other illustrations, it really was a kind of mini poster, perfect for framing.

Another aspect that I love here, is of course the pole. I've already mentioned a couple of times how much I love this bondage device, which, when anchored in the right way, can hold a woman stuck in place all on it's own, without any other form of bondage. The fact that she is standing captive because of her own body, due to it's anatomy and weight is so delisciously demeaning.

Speaking of anatomy, I love the subtle muscularity in the thighs, and the way he has shaded her tummy, in turn making her love mount slightly protruding. And speaking of body weight: the fact that he chose this perspective, this downward angle does a lot emphasize that weight, and the impossibilty of stepping off the thing.

But the icing on the cake has to be that spiked ring, forcing her to stand with her legs spread wide. Although now I have actually seen that item popping up in photo's here and there, in those days (the seventies) I had never seen anything like it before, and it's genius made me think of a remark Bishop once made (with regard to his background as a technical illustrator): "Basically, I view the human body as a machine, and there are several ways of immobilizing that machine" Pure, simple brilliancy.