Forget Me Not hardcover mock-up

London publisher Circa Press has launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund publication of the next book in its fetish art/photography series: Forget Me Not by Helena Calmfors.

The campaign, which runs until April 2, has already raised more than £9,000 towards it £15,000 goal. So if you like what you see here, get your pledge in and secure a copy as part of one of the eight rewards on offer.

One reward that particularly caught our eye is the Rubber Wrapper Edition, a limited edition of 50 which features a signed copy of Forget Me Not in a rubber wrapper handmade by latex designer Am Statik, an old pal of The Fetishistas. For details of all rewards, see below!

Author Helena Calmfors is a Swedish-born, New York-based artist and performer whose work is inspired by the fetish archetype of the dominant woman. It’s a role with which she identifies and yet “gently subverts by introducing ‘soft’ elements, such as flowers, into the typically ‘hard’ aesthetic vocabulary of domination”.

We promise that it’s just a happy coincidence that the current (March) Fetishistas cover story — our interview with House of Harlot/Fade in Decay director Iris Trika — also features interplay between flowers and fetish. It must be something in the air!

But back to Helena: central to her work, we’re told, is the feminist belief in the right to own one’s body; she also explores the theme of reclaiming identity through hierarchical power play.

The act of creating intimate scenes and experiences is present in all aspects of her art, ranging from performance to watercolour paintings, and both digital and instant photography. She uses Polaroid as a way of “representing the ephemerality of performance and the fleeting intimacy of the dominant/submissive relationship”.