Dialogue on the Infinity of Love

Ava Berlin
LITERATURE

Tullia d’Aragona’s Dialogue on the Infinity of Love (1547) challenged Renaissance norms with its bold assertion that love unites the physical and spiritual, while advocating for women’s intellectual and sexual equality. As an "honest courtesan," Aragona navigated elite circles with intellect and grace, using her paradoxical position—empowered yet stigmatized—to publish groundbreaking ideas that resonate alongside those of Christine de Pizan, Simone de Beauvoir, and Audre Lorde. Her work remains a timeless lesson in challenging norms with elegance and persuasion.

Nick Blackburn's Ode to Lily Savage

Ava Berlin
OBITUARY

Nick Blackburn published a metaphorical toast to Lily Savage in the Opinion section of Frieze online magazine. The life of the Dame of Birkenhead, also known as Lily Savage, also known as Paul O’Grady isn’t something anyone could capture in one go but a nod, a wink, a clink and a loving, knowing smirk might get the job done just for today.

Porn: An Oral History by Polly Barton

Ava Berlin
LITERATURE

“Polly Barton interrogates the absence of discussion around a topic that is ubiquitous and influences our daily lives. In her search for understanding, she spent a year initiating intimate conversations with nineteen acquaintances of a range of ages, genders and sexualities about everything and anything related to porn: watching habits, emotions and feelings of guilt, embarrassment, disgust and shame, fantasy and desire.”

Untitled, 2000 by Laura Owens

Ava Berlin
ART

Two figures lock eyes tenderly, if ambiguously, beneath a floral quilt that is based on another of Owen’s paintings.  The bed seems to float within a dreamy expanse of pure colour, conjuring a muddy atmosphere of intimacy and emotion that Owens would increasingly explore over the next decade.”