Forbidden Pleasure (XV) is part of Cheap Thrills and Forbidden Pleasures, a series of fifteen silver-dye bleach photographic prints of store-bought desserts including cream puffs, pear tarts, chocolate eclairs, doughnuts, and a variety of pies. Each sweet is set upon decorative fabric that has been styled, with folds and pleats, to offset its slick and sugary surface. Offered up for the delectation of the viewer, the desserts glisten under the hot studio lights and, although not entirely intentionally, embody the intentions of food advertisements to attract and entice. In doing so, Jo Ann Callis emulates the visual language of publicity transforming mundane objects into sinful delights and suggestive narratives through provocative lighting, patterned surfaces, and textured fabrics.

Though Callis’ palette, meticulous styling, and fetishistic images echo commercial photography, she maintains that her work is decidedly feminist. In its first presentation, the photographs that make up Cheap Thrills and Forbidden Pleasures arranged in an inverted triangle formation, suggesting the shape of a woman’s pubic area. Created in the early 1990s, this body of work was among several that Callis created at the time exploring gender and sexuality, using photography to render the sensual tones and textures of fabric and food.