This week's reflection: the visual syntax of desire

What the many covers of "Mating In Captivity" have taught me about my own book

Ripe fruit. Risqué peppers. Mysterious flowers. Matches in box. A couple in bed. The bed itself, mussed. The covers of the many editions of Mating In Captivity tell a story about desire that is as revealing as the text itself.

When I wrote Mating, intimacy and desire were still taboo subjects for which many simply did not have a vocabulary. What an odd challenge I created for the artists whose task it was to design international covers for the book—how do you visually represent a conversation that no one is having? A conversation that they are afraid to have, or are outright avoiding?