Sex (book) - Design and Printing

Design and Printing

Sex was designed by Madonna and Baron & Baron Inc. (consisting of Fabien Baron and the photographer Siung Fat Tjia), who also designed the packaging for Madonna's Erotica album and single. The book is largely presented in a style not far off from Andy Warhol's works, namely the famous shot on the metallized plastic cover of the book (a colored reverse negative), which Madonna also used as the cover of her Erotica album.

Certain pages included collages of ripped and pasted prints (including some that were stapled together), proof sheets and entire pages in both monochrome & full color. The text of the book varies from handwritten to printed, with eye-bending styles of typefaces and colors. In the non-English versions of the book any printed text that was not printed in these complex typefaces had the relevant translation printed over it, and any text that could not have the translated text printed over it was included at the back of the book on additional pages. In the Japanese version, Madonna had any photos that included visible genitalia "scribbled out".

Included with the book was a CD packaged in silver mylar packaging that resembled a condom. The CD contains a stripped down version of "Erotica", titled "Erotic". Although the sound is similar to Erotica, the song's lyrics consist of passages read by Madonna from the book.

There is a small photonovella-style comic bound into the back of the book titled Dita in "The Chelsea Girl" which depicts a party at the Hotel Chelsea in New York City. Allegedly Madonna created the dialogue of the comic book when photographer Steven Meisel placed a stack of randomly ordered photos from one of the book's photo sessions on her desk. He suggested she conjure up a story while maintaining the random order of the photos.

The English language release of Sex was printed in 1.5 million copies in its first edition and another 1.5 million in its second (Madonna herself is said to own the very first printed copy of the first edition.). The Japanese and French language releases received a 1 million copy printing each for the first edition. Since the Japanese version was banned shortly after its release, it did not receive a second edition printing like the English and French versions did. The English version was the only version printed in the United States, while the English, French, Spanish, Italian, German and Japanese versions were printed in their respective countries. Aside from the translated text and differences in paper quality, they are identical to the English language version. The Japanese version was printed on art paper of far higher quality than that of the English and other versions.

The Japanese version was the only release of Sex to be put into a box. Although all of the other official releases of the book include the title on the metallized plastic cover as "Madonna Sex", the Japanese language release had the title printed as "Sex by Madonna" on the metallized plastic cover.

Books that were printed in languages such as Thai, or Russian are all unofficial and were manufactured without the consent of Madonna or Warner Bros. These versions of the book were printed in a variety of styles, with varying covers and quality.

The book was sold for $49.95 in the United States, £25.00 in the United Kingdom, Pts 7,500 in Spain, 300F in France, 99 DM in Germany, and L75,000 in Italy.