The book includes cameos by actress Isabella Rossellini, rappers Big Daddy Kane and Vanilla Ice, model Naomi Campbell, gay porn star Joey Stefano, actor Udo Kier, and socialite Princess Tatiana von Fürstenberg.

[1] The other is that Judith Regan, vice-president and editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster, armed with a proposal for a collection of photo-erotica, flew to Los Angeles in March 1991 to meet with Madonna and her manager Freddy DeMann.

Since by contract she had total artistic control over any work released by Maverick, who were now the book's publisher, the agreement she signed with Time Warner over the content in Sex was null and void.

[5][6][7] Sex's stylized, sado-masochistic look had a range of influences from punk rock, to early fashion iconoclasts like Guy Bourdin and his surrealism, and Helmut Newton.

Madonna had considered using X as a title during the formative stages of Sex,[9][10] but she changed her mind when promotion for Spike Lee's film Malcolm X began.

[12] She hired Fabien Baron as the art director,[13] fashion photographer Steven Meisel, editor Glenn O'Brien, make-up artist Francois Nars and hairstylist Paul Cavaco.

Locations in New York City included the Hotel Chelsea and Times Square's all-male burlesque Gaiety Theatre whose dancers participated in one of the book's photo sessions along with porn star Joey Stefano and actor Udo Kier.

[1][5][15] One morning during the four-day Florida shoot Madonna was prancing naked around her 14-bedroom house in Miami when someone jokingly suggested she go out on the street, which she did on two occasions – topless with Vanilla Ice and completely nude while pretending to hitchhike.

[34] Since they recovered stolen pictures during the making of Sex, Madonna thanked the FBI for "rescuing photographs that would have made J. Edgar Hoover roll over" in the book's credits.

One photo showed a nude Madonna wearing a rabbit's tail, shaving the pubic hair of a naked man, and cavorting outdoors with a dog, suggesting bestiality.

[40] Entertainment Tonight reported Madonna had initiated the mayhem with the explicit content in the music video for "Erotica", walking bare breasted at designer Jean Paul Gaultier's fashion show and posing nude in Vanity Fair magazine.

[5] Michael Kilian of the Chicago Tribune published a tongue-in-cheek article on October 7, 1992, about the coming release: "Prepare thyself, [...], The mega-event of the millennium is to occur in precisely two weeks.

[44] On October 15, Madonna threw a pre-release party at New York City's Industria Superstudio having signed all the invitations with "Dita" her Sex alter ego.

To celebrate its release, the store held a Madonna look-alike contest and set up a booth where people could view the book for one dollar a minute, with the proceeds going to Lifebeat, the music industry organization founded to help fund AIDS research.

Critics,[52][53][54][55] conservative, feminist and anti-porn groups[1][56] reacted negatively to the book because of its sexually explicit photographs, which many characterized as hardcore pornography.

"[58] Author Lucy O'Brien declared the book a bold, harrowing exercise in frustration, and despite Madonna's attempt at invincibility, it appeared to be "a curious act of self-destruction".

[11] The Daily Beast said "the book is neither groundbreaking (save that it features a major star) nor particularly sexy [...] Sex is convincing only when it's playful, as when she appears nude in a Miami pizzeria, chewing a slice while a baffled customer looks on.

"[18] British author Zoë Heller of The Independent wrote that it was "the women who once saw Madonna as a witty feminist role model who have been most alarmist about her latest pornographic incarnation ...

[9] Caryn James, in The New York Times, wrote: "There is plenty here to offend the meek (whips and chains), the self-righteous (gay men and lesbians), not to mention the tasteful (a tacky and cluttered art design)".

[71] In France, Madonna held the record for the highest first-month sales for a book in history, before being surpassed by Thierry Meyssan with L'Effroyable Impasture in 2002.

[97] Continuing her provocative work, Madonna starred in the erotic thriller Body of Evidence, which features her fully nude engaging in simulated sexual acts.

[31] Jane Raphaely, editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan (South Africa) praised Madonna's "liberated behavior in Sex [...] the fact that she takes all forms of pornography and systematically demystifies it by putting it under her control", in an article in 1996.

Elan felt the book was part of a "slower reveal that began with confessional tracks such as 'Oh Father' (from 1989's Like a Prayer) and continued with the many scenes of narcissism captured in In Bed With Madonna".

"[120] She felt women were coming out about their sexuality and the book's handling of the taboo issue was "a legacy, our contribution to the show", stressing "[t]he lesbian sub-cultural references borrowed by Madonna aren't our only possessions.

According to female critics, who pointed out the vacuousness of Madonna's remarks about porn and abuse, she did not understand that behind the fantasies the "reality is too hard" for a woman to endure, referring to the daily hustles that women have to face in red light districts and brothels.

[121] The author felt that despite the courageous premise of genuine exploration of queer sex, the book crossed over into pornography and was a wrong portrayal for the community, while being flippant and commercial.

[122] In 2017, Matthew Jacobs from the HuffPost wrote that it was "an audacious thesis statement, calculated enough to piss people off but seemly enough to maintain artistic integrity.

Curated by Madonna and Anthony Vaccarello, large format prints from the book were shown in a temporarily constructed art gallery on the beach.

American performance artist Ann Magnuson, who worked with Madonna on the 1985 film Desperately Seeking Susan, released a parody of the book's photo sessions, where she simulated sex with a giant stuffed bear.

An outtake from the book, it features a naked Madonna sporting bleach-blonde hair and dark eye make-up; lying on a bed and partially covered by a sheet, she is smoking a cigarette.