Baby Doll [Presentation Edition]

London: Velvet, 1997. First Edition/Limited Edition. Hardcover. Fine in Fine Slipcase. First Edition/Limited Edition. Hardcover. The inscription, mostly likely to Robert Bond, read: "For Robert / never forget that it is an irritant that provokes the creation of a peace [sic] .... / Peter / HERU / I hope we can work on the sequel of "The Risen" together some time soon." This last a reference to Iain Sinclair's, The Risen (Robert Bond was Sinclair's biographer).
"Peter Whitehead has been a scientist, newsreel cameraman, writer, publisher, falconer, erotic photographer and an occultist. He has lived a rich life of extraordinary, almost hallucinogenic, intensity. He pioneered a highly subjective, personal style of documentary cinema influenced by the cinema vérité and direct cinema movements that offers audiences a singular vision." "1972 found avant-garde film documentarist Peter Whitehead ensconced in a chateau in southern France with a teenage heiress model and a month's supply of film and psychedelic drugs. The startling results, never before published, are contained in Baby Doll, a beautiful yet distrubing visual diary of a last four weeks spent in the pursuit of both physical and spiritual erotic extremes. An uncensored, unflinching photographic journal of sexual metamorphosis and personality disintegration, Baby Doll is also a unique testament to Peter Whitehead's experimental vision, a forbidden legacy of an era simultaneously marked by its innocence and its licence to explore previously uncharted areas of sexuality and psychic experimentation." (publisher). Tight, bright, and unmarred. Slipcase bright and clean. Black textured paper boards, gilt lettering, black endpages; red faux-leather textured slipcase. Small 4to. np. Illus. (b/w plates). [N.B. It appears that this work was issued only in wrappers, making this an interesting copy. It is presumed that it is one of a small run bound in this fashion and presented to the author.].