Intimates and Fools

(Les Femmes Folles Books, 2014)
ISBN: 978-0-615-94749-5
$14.00

Coupling body art and poetry, Intimates and Fools intimates the complicating pairing of the female form and cultural notions of beauty while playfully seeking to bare and bear such burdens of their weight. Body art and illustrations by Sally Deskins.

Sally Deskins & Laura Madeline Wiseman, what a delightful duo! Their book, Intimates and Fools, is a captivating aria praising that most maligned 0f all intimates, the brassiere. Wiseman’s slender, sometimes tart, poems form the skeleton of this book. Her bras are active; they tangle, squish, and flutter. Her descriptions are vivid: “one naughty strap winding, below a silk tank top.” Her humor is lighthearted: “why,” she asks about bras, “does everyone prefer them off?” Deskins’ characterful artwork supports Wiseman’s bras as she illustrates Intimates and Fools. Her captivating art, sometimes abstract, is mostly about cups: coffee cups and bra cups! They come in all sizes, shapes and colors, matching Wiseman’s poems in range and humor. Together, Wiseman and Deskins dance through an entertaining duet of intimate colors and words. Their stimulating combination forms a heady brew. You’ll not regret imbibing.
-Marilyn June Coffey

They’re rarely comfortable, never lift high enough and finding a “perfect fit” is elusive at best. Cleverly weaving our love-hate relationship with the bra through insightful poetry and playful, evocative art, Intimates and Fools is easily appreciated by anyone who has ever had to wear one.
-Roxanne Wach

Surprising and spontaneous, colorful and expressive, Sally Deskins’ illustrations are fun, inviting and light-hearted. Knowing the process of breast printing the images only makes the accompanying poetry by Laura Madeline Wiseman even more humorous. What a delightful pair these two artists make in this collaborative book. Coffee tables will never be the same again.
-Rachel Mindrup

Intimates and Fools, a lovely book about life and intimate wear, playfully exposes our epic love/hate relationship with the bra. Laura Madeline Wiseman’s beautifully blunt musings couple with Sally Deskins’ mischievous drawings and colorful “body prints” to fluidly move us from “pinched shoulders” to “silk roses”; they make the perfect pair.
-Kristin Pluhacek