Book Review: Off the Bookshelf

Cowboy Code

Arena Editions, 132 pp., $60

"Wrangler butts drive us nuts," people say. And strangely enough, it's taken a Belgian photographer, Wouter Deruytter, to examine the arid masculinity of the West and create an arousing summary of the classic American cowboy's pure and visceral sexuality. Like Alexis de Tocqueville traveling through the nascent democratic United States, Deruytter brings an outsider's fascination to some of our country's most alluring resources and presents them in a new and enlightening form. In 70 black-and-white photos taken over a three-year period in Montana, Deruytter delights in exposing every hot squat and stretch in the state. There's the rump, for example, of an anonymous cowhand bent over the fence of a corral. Then there are the two seductive young cowboys in some very busy jeans reclining with just enough space between them for any interested third party to join the pending menage: Giddy up, indeed. The introductory text by John Wood is an intelligent study of the psyche and physicality of the cowboy, but don't be fooled -- this book is more about balls than brains. There are so many naughty looks that it might take a few rides on that old mechanical bull to get these stiff shots off your mind.