Landscapes and Desire

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COVERING five thousand years of landscape architecture, from Stonehenge and Avebury to eighteenth-century pleasure gardens and modern times, this irreverent, challenging and revealing investigation delves into the diverse history of Britain and Ireland's most stunning sexually inspired landscapes and monuments.
Thousands of people visit West Wycombe Park in Buckinghamshire each year but few realise that the gardens - created by Sir Francis Dashwood, founder of the Hell-Fire Club - are designed as an erotic tribute to the female form. A statue of Venus surmounts an ample grassy mound, at the base of which a stone façade spreads to either side revealing a narrow oval slit - the entrance to a secret subterranean grotto. West Wycombe Park was created at the height of a Georgian fashion for erotic gardens, yet the Georgians were by no -means the first to indulge in such symbolism. Their acknowledgement and celebration of human sexuality on an open-air stage followed a tradition... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Li
COVERING five thousand years of landscape architecture, from Stonehenge and Avebury to eighteenth-century pleasure gardens and modern times, this irreverent, challenging and revealing investigation delves into the diverse history of Britain and Ireland's most stunning sexually inspired landscapes and monuments.
Thousands of people visit West Wycombe Park in Buckinghamshire each year but few realise that the gardens - created by Sir Francis Dashwood, founder of the Hell-Fire Club - are designed as an erotic tribute to the female form. A statue of Venus surmounts an ample grassy mound, at the base of which a stone façade spreads to either side revealing a narrow oval slit - the entrance to a secret subterranean grotto. West Wycombe Park was created at the height of a Georgian fashion for erotic gardens, yet the Georgians were by no -means the first to indulge in such symbolism. Their acknowledgement and celebration of human sexuality on an open-air stage followed a tradition that can be traced back to the builders of the earliest temples and standing stones. From prehistoric erotica to some surprising Victorian creations and twentieth-century sexually inspired landscapes, Catherine Tuck shows how the natural cycle of fertility has been a central preoccupation in human monuments. The results are sometimes awe-inspiring, sometimes shocking and often amusing.
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Combining die latest research with stunning original photographs by Alun Bull, Landscapes and Desire re-establishes our link to nature and celebrates the joyous affirmation of sex that has moved coldblooded Britons for five millennia. It will appeal to anyone interested in Britain's natural and architectural heritage.
CATHERINE TUCK is a landscape archaeologist working for English Heritage and based in Cambridge. She has travelled extensively and, for two years, was a lan,dscapL surveyor for Channel 4's Time Team series.
ALUN BULL is a location photographer specialising in landscape archaeology and architecture. His work has featured in National Geographic and The Ultimate Time Team Companion and he w^s involved in the making of Rhino - The Last Refuge, a BBC award-winning documentary. He works for English Heritage.
Jacket illustration^, front: Men-an-Tol, Cornivall; hack (from left): Cerne Abbas Giant, Dorset; statue from the Fountain of Venus, Bolsover Castle, Derbyshire; carved stone phallus on roman bridge, Chollerford, Northumberland (photographs by Alun Bull) Vissza