165 x 222 mm, 76 pages London, UK Editor-in-chief: Emily Tobin Art director: Ben Weaver The latest special edition from the World of Interiors team is this beautifully printed, small format collection of images devoted to sex and erotica. Describing itself as concerning ‘The Prurient Pleasures, Concupiscences, Debauches, Fleshly Recreations and Baser Parts of the Humans Species,’ it presents a collection of genitalia-orientated objects, furniture and decorations. Flick from penis-shaped plans for a 19th century brothel, to a Medieval pilgrims badge portraying a vulva with arms and legs, via concept art for the 2023 movie ‘Poor Things’ and one of Allen Jones’s controversial sculptures of a semi-naked woman bearing a glass tabletop. Slotted neatly between the images are four essays: British Museum curator Imma Ramos on the museum’s once-clandestine collection of sexually explicit objects; curator Priya Khamchandani on the use of women’s bodies in design and decoration; AFM magazine editor Maria Dimitrova on the erotics of renovation; and WoI regular David Lipton on Catherine the Great’s collection of sexually explicit furniture. From its appearance alongside September’s body-themed edition of the main magazine, to its clever name and quirky captioning, Top Shelf demonstrates a sharpness of wit that might surprise readers. A brilliant addition to the World of Interiors constellation that completely belies the project’s sponsorship by dating app Feeld. On the JournalAt Work With Emily Tobin: ‘Top Shelf was never intended to be provocative for the sake of provocation alone, it was always about showing humanity’s long and complex history with sex and erotica. Month in month out we are given access to people’s homes, these spaces are inherently intimate, they are where our most private rituals play out. World of Interiors has always understood the tension between revelation and concealment, Top Shelf was a way of pushing this idea to its limits.’READ MORE worldofinteriors.co.uk
