A publisher, a store, a person and a dessert topping (ok, not a dessert topping), Taschen is a name synonymous with scrumptious photography hard covers. Sometimes releasing somewhat saucy titles. This week I take a look at some of the line’s most recent books.

The Big Butt Book
This is the book that started this week’s column; I saw it advertised and new I had to get my hands on it…the book that is. Compiled by Taschen’s book editor Dian Hansen (she is the editor of all the books I am featuring here today), The Big Butt Book is a photography hard cover that “puts the backside front and center.” Although we are all well aware that the female tush, culo, derrière’s primary purpose is functional-to balance our bodies while running-ask any pygophiliac (the clinical term for butt fans…see, who says you don’t learn important stuff reading this column!) and they’ll declare that the female bottom exists to please eye, hands and…

The BBB is the fourth installment of Dian Hanson’s critically acclaimed body parts series, featuring over 400 photos from 1900 to the present day. Including work by Elmer Batters, Ed Fox, Terry Richardson and Sante D’Orazio, more importantly the women featured are everyone from petite Pam Anderson to Serena Williams. There are also interviews with such notable butt experts like John (Buttman) Stagliano, Robert Crumb, and “bootylicious butt queens” Buffie The Body and Coco.

Urban Girls
Composite photos featuring exotic locales and lush interiors, even the “neon-washed nighttime streets of Manhattan” commercial/fashion photographer Howard Huang’s Urban Girls features ample-bottomed ladies like singer Jacki-O, actress Vida Guerra and reality-TV star Risky Jones. Whether on shiny motorcycles, robbing banks with guns drawn or hunting big game, these ass-kicking girls are showing their ample asses in this hardcover photo book specifically exploring the niche market of African-American and Latina bikini models in all their big-bottomed, slightly nefarious glory.

Special “incognito” edition of Ed Fox
L.A. native Ed Fox celebrates female feet. One of the first photographers to capture diva pin-up Dita von Teese, as well as taking pics of beauties like Tera Patrick, Aria Giovanni and Belladonna, for this more-than-fetish-ized photo book about…feet. As Ed says “The most tempting part of a woman’s body is her feet. Feet are a woman’s second body, the one I can visually enjoy without her being offended or even aware, and never would I have imagined that my little secret would attract so many people.” And here I thought it was butts!  Fox’s ‘incognito’ special edition has an hour-long DVD featuring many of the stars, with an original musical score and a “Panic Cover” that can be reversed to a realistic-looking academic book (see pic).

So there you have it, a little run down on what’s new from the artsy, high-end, often times slightly naughty Taschen. You can pick up these books at any bookstore or if you’re in the neighborhood, visit their Soho location, or the 9 other locations worldwide.

For more information on the books go to http://www.taschen.com/ or head over to their store in NYC at http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/stores/979.store_new_york.1.htm.