Patently Erotic: Tear-away Bras, Couple's Chairs, Vibrating Condoms and Other Patented Strokes of Genius - Hardcover

In this unique collection of unbelievable real-life patent applications, author, photographer and connoisseur of the bizarre and faintly disturbing Richard Ross has delved into the archives of patent offices to take a look at contraptions designed to titillate and facilitate. Accompanied by commentary from the author and illustrated with the inventors' own diagrams, inventions such as force-sensitive, sound-playing condoms and lap dance liners provide a revealing look at our issues with intimacy. Choose from a device for assisting and maintaining an erection, therapeutic or adhesive brassieres, thrusting rods, prophylactic underwear or even an artificial foreskin - each is a celebration of innovation at its most feverish. The book is supported by Richard Ross' website www.patentlyerotic.com

US-based Richard Ross is an award-winning photographer and professor at the University of California-Santa Barbara. His photographs have appeared in numerous publications including the 'New York Times Magazine' and 'Vogue'. He lives by the Pacific Ocean and enjoys walking his dog with a conventional lead.