Warm up this winter: Go to Hell. In December, the public (those over 18, that is) is invited to penetrate the dark and steamy world of printed desire. For the first time, the Bibliothèque nationale will display its infamous and mysterious collection known as l’Enfer, or Hell, its section that contains blacklisted printed materials. Revealed in “L’enfer de la Bibliothèque, Eros au secret,” are over 350 pieces, from famous works by the Marquis de Sade to scabrous anonymous pamphlets, from orgiastic engravings to pornographic photographs…

The Library first created a separate section dedicated to publications deemed contrary to “good mores” in the 1830’s. Throughout the 19th century, the collection steadily grew thanks to private donations, seized materials, legal registration (by law, copies of all printed works must be sent to the Library) and, in the second half of that century, the first fruits of pornographic photography. When Orientalism became à la mode, erotic Japanese books and embossments were added as well.

Rumors about l’Enfer piqued the interest of curious readers, including poet Guillaume Apollinaire who took part in the secret creation of the first unauthorized printed catalog, published in 1913. Official catalogs were made later, revealing the shifts in the way the institution looked at these works.

A mirror of its time, l’Enfer was closed in 1968, as more liberated attitudes permeated society and pushed the boundaries of what was regarded as permissible. However, practical issues and the need for a coherent category including erotic works led to the reopening of l’Enfer in 1983.
The exhibition also chronologically explores the works that have been kept hidden from the public’s eye until now. Welcome to whorehouses and bourgeois bedrooms, convents and confessionals…Visitors will be introduced to the characters that populated the illustrated libertine novels from the 16th to the 18th century, including, among the most famous ones, Sade’s Justine and Queen Marie-Antoinette caricatured in obscene pamphlets created to denounce the Ancient Régime.

The exhibition presents the publishers who worked mostly underground and sold their books and photographs under wraps. Some dedicated themselves to “whipping novels,” an English specialty that conquered France from the end of the 19th century until the Second World War. Also shown are extracts of silent erotic films that were screened in upscale brothels at the beginning of last century.

Finally, the curators take a close look at the 20th century, which marked the beginning of a certain tolerance for the genre with the emergence of significant players such as Apollinaire, photographer Man Ray, or writers Louis Aragon, George Bataille, and Jean Genet.
Never has a trip to the library been so exciting.

L’Enfer de la Bibliothèque, Eros au Secret, December 4-March 2. Over 18 yrs only. €5-7. Bibliothèque nationale de France, quai François-Mauriac, Paris 13. Mº Bibliothèque François Mitterand. 01 53 79 40 41. www.bnf.fr

A Hot Station

From December 4 to March 2, in a parallel “exhibition,” metro riders on the line 10 will pass through Croix rouge, in between Sèvres Babylone and Mabillon, a ghost station
that has been closed since the war. As the train slows down, they will discern, under swaying veils, erotic writings and suggestive images…