Samuel Bester: The Artist behind the Cover of our First Special Collection on Sexual Pleasure

Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters Podcast

As SRHM gets ready to launch its first Special Collection on Sexual Pleasure, let’s hear from the artist behind the cover of this collection—Samuel Bester. Hailing from Switzerland, Samuel Bester grew up fascinated by art, especially with the emotion, upheaval, and creativity that art evokes in people. While studying in Strasbourg in 1992, Samuel took a keen interest in video art, an art form that is linked to the Fluxus movement. The Fluxus movement strived to bind life and art together—a philosophy that Samuel abides to, till date.

This cover image is a still from Samuel Bester’s video 'Hermaphrodite', based on the poem Hermaphrodite from Book IV of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Through this image, Samuel wanted to visualise the story in this poem, of the fusion of the male and female gender to form a new gender, and depict the sensuality and eroticism of this process.

Listen to Samuel talk in depth about the inspiration behind his art, and what this cover image signifies to him!