juicebox book review

12/16/2012 9:59:44 AM

Annie Sprinkle : Post-Porn Modernist

Porn-star-turned-performance-artist Annie Sprinkle presents an illustrated history of her 25-year career, documenting her transformation from ugly duckling to prostitute to porn queen to sexual healer, activist, and educator. Although she began as "an excruciatingly shy girl" selling popcorn at an adult theater showing Deep Throat, her playful and uninhibited nature was soon recognized. When the police closed the theater, she asked a spiritualist friend for a spell that might bring her a new job. "It was my first experience with witchcraft," Sprinkle recalls, "and I didn't really expect it to work. But did it ever! I hit the jackpot. Maybe it was just good luck, but a week later I was working as a prostitute." She was discovered by porn producers soon afterward and went on to make over 200 hardcore films before leaving the industry to develop her own public performances, the most famous of which was her "Public Cervix Announcement," in which she allowed audience members to view her interior using a speculum and a flashlight. Well-written, well-illustrated, and calmly outrageous, Post-Porn Modernist is a great introduction to an American original