Long-form personal essays with a political edge continue to boom in popularity. Some are truly compelling, concise yet thoughtful, planting a writer’s unique place in the world. Others are too meandering, shovelling clever cultural references in the gaps where the argument loses its grasp. Sophia Giovannitti’s Working Girl: On Selling Art And Selling Sex sits somewhere in the middle. This New York-based writer and conceptual artist’s debut book promises a great deal from the outset. Framed as an ‘exploration into the very similar work of selling art and selling sex’, this title strives to illuminate how these highly lucrative industries are more entangled than we may initially suspect.

In the second chapter, there is a jarring, long-winded metaphor which tries to encapsulate the book’s premise with Giovannitti comparing steak to sex, then to art, and then to sex work. Its futileness sticks out like a sore thumb. However, the author is strongest as a writer when her art and research do the talking. There are some fascinating, in-depth records of the intersection of sex work and art here, from Carolee Schneemann’s erotic avant-garde explorations to controversies surrounding pop-culture tycoon Jeff Koons. In particular, Giovannitti dedicates several brilliant pages to analysing Lynda Benglis’ ‘dildo-adorned self-portrait’ which was published as an advertisement in a 1974 edition of Artforum. With extraordinary fervour, Giovannitti details the fallout from its publication, featuring anti-pornography feminists and Artforum editors who defamed Benglis in the following issue. 

Ultimately, this book’s gripping subject matter offers an accessible yet imaginative route into those intersections of sex work and the art market, from the perspective of a person with has lived experience of both. There are some binarisms in Working Girl which could benefit from being teased out with carefully applied critical theory, or perhaps even a stronger, more distinctive personal and political angle. Nevertheless, Sophia Giovannitti’s work offers a view we haven’t seen before. 

Published on Tuesday 30 May.