For Sale. John Coutts aka John Willie. Bizarre No. 17. Montreal, 1956.

Description

John Coutts, better known by his pen name John Willie, was a British-Canadian illustrator, photographer, and publisher celebrated for his pioneering role in fetish art and the underground BDSM culture of the mid-20th century. Born in 1902 in Singapore, Coutts grew up in England before eventually settling in Canada and later the United States. He passed in 1962.

Coutts is best known as the founder, editor, and primary contributor to Bizarre Magazine, which he published between 1946 and 1959. The magazine, distributed through mail order, was groundbreaking in its exploration of fetish themes such as corsetry, bondage, high heels, and dominance/submission dynamics. Coutts used a combination of photographs and his own intricate, elegant illustrations to depict these themes in a playful and theatrical style.

Eric Kroll once told me John Willie would go to a news stand, place a few copies of Bizarre on the shelf, and wait. All day. Until a woman came up and pulled one off the shelf — at that point he’d approach her to model for him.