ANAÏS NIN

A full-color illumination of the intersection between the renowned writer’s creativity and sexuality.

In her latest book, which serves as a kind of psychobiography, Brussels-based Swiss cartoonist Bischoff captures both the inner and outer lives of her fascinating subject Anaïs Nin (1903-1977). The narrative opens with Nin’s stifling marriage to a banker with his own creative aspirations, a tolerant man who was unable to help his wife unleash the sexuality she knew was within her. In the text, Nin often describes herself as “innocent,” and the combination of art and text reflects that side of her—the initiate, the explorer—while a second voice inside her, perhaps the voice of her diaries, urges her to be true to herself. “On the surface, I am calm and secure,” she says. “But few know how many women live inside me.” During the course of Bischoff’s chronicle, Nin encounters a kindred spirit in Henry Miller and becomes even more deeply enraptured by his wife, June. However, it’s clear that Miller wants to edit Nin’s work to make it more conventional, to have her, she fears, write like a man. Later, a psychiatrist tries to help her with her tumultuous emotional journey while also succumbing to her seductive lure. Then she travels further into forbidden territory with her cousin. Throughout, the illustrations are graphic and sensual without being pornographic. They are at their most powerful when they address Nin’s stormy inner life. As she becomes consumed by her dedication to a very daring sort of artistic truth, she defies the conventions of monogamy, heterosexuality, and domesticity. Bischoff effectively demonstrates how Nin splits into different incarnations with the different people who enrapture her and discovers a way to turn her personal truths into celebrated art: “I will make of my life a masterpiece and invent a language to tell it.”

A dazzling portrait of a complicated writer.