Undergarments and Armor. 3 Vols. in Slipcase

Tucson: Nazraeli Press, 2005. First edition. Hardcover. Near fine condition. Octavo. Unpaginated; 8, 23, 22 plates. Original gray cloth with black lettering on spines, housed in matching slipcase with photographic plates laid to debossed squares on front and back cover; black lettering on covers and spine. Black endpapers.

"Undergarments and armor are among the most evocative categories of dress for a variety of reasons. To begin with, as Marcuse observes, the dichotomy between armor and underwear evokes a series of other visual and conceptual polarities: male/female, hard/soft, outside/inside, armed/disarmed. However, she is also aware that "no one simple reading is possible... From the bizarre steatopygous forms of Victorian bustles to the haunting facial masks on medieval helmets, Tanya Marcuse has illuminated the complex relationship between body and clothes, with all the ambiguities this entails."

Three volumes, the first with eight photographs and the short essay by Valerie Steele, twenty-three photographs in volume two (undergarments), and twenty-two in volume three (Armor), both with descriptive list of photographs at rear. Slipcase very lightly rubbed with minor smudge on back cover.