Indiscrétions: Dis-moi comment tu baises (Confidences: Tell Me How You Fuck) is an unusual entry in Didier Axterdam’s erotic oeuvre. Rather than a conventional fictional narrative, it takes the form of an erotic documentary or sketchbook. Couples and groups – Pascal, Antje, Lisa, Jocelin, Michel, Gabrielle, Denis, Inès, Nadège, Mitch, Jeanne, Angela and Connie – all agree to allow Axterdam to observe and draw their intimate encounters, motivated by curiosity, exhibitionism or simply a desire to preserve the experience.

Axterdam’s own presence is an important part of the book. His accompanying texts describe his thoughts and reactions as he watches and sketches, placing the reader alongside him as an invited voyeur. The drawings themselves are made rapidly from life, concentrating on gesture, posture and movement and retaining the spontaneity of the sketch. Pleasure, playfulness, intensity and physical vulnerability are all captured with the same directness.

The result is part erotic reportage, part personal diary and part life-drawing project. It also reveals the connection between Axterdam’s erotic work and his longstanding interest in drawing bodies in movement.

Here is Axterdam’s introduction to the book:

I have a pronounced taste for drawing bodies in movement, particularly the bodies of male and female dancers. Chance saw fit to lead me astray for a while along more adventurous byways: for a year, I met and drew couples. These couples agreed to make love in front of me.
     And there was certainly plenty of movement! For an afternoon or an evening, these men and women allowed me to watch them making love – without shame or modesty – in exchange for the opportunity to indulge their natural inclination towards exhibitionism and to take part in an artistic project.
     Any resemblance to people and events that actually existed is therefore not coincidental …

We have included the first twenty or so pages from Indiscrétions – for the rest you will need to buy the book.

Indiscrétions: Dis-moi comment tu baises was published by Éditions Tabou.