Woher kommen die kleinen Kinder?
Herbert Stattler

The sex education book Woher kommen die kleinen Kinder? was published in 1957 with a text by Ruth Andreas-Friedrich and illustrations by Jochen Bartsch. It was intended to answer questions about sexuality, procreation, father and mother, family responsibilities, and prenuptial chastity. But instead of providing clarity, the book tended rather to romanticize the subject.
Herbert Stattler has now translated the obsessional imagery of the 1950s into an artist book with forty-two pencil drawings. The sheets are reproduced using the relief printing process and displayed on folded double pages. The pictures alternate with lines Stattler has selected from the sex education text. The process of leafing through the book and unfolding the pages together with the shifting between word and image, quotation and drawing evoke a poetic commentary. The book has a Swiss-style cut-flush binding, making it possible to pull out individual sheets as you might with a drawing pad.