On Pleasure is issue #2 of With/out Pretend’s magazine, The Vault.

With writing from Alicia Bunyan-Sampson, Mollie Coles Tonn, Colleen Conroy, Lizzie Derksen, Jaime Eisen, Margeaux Feldman, Ruchika Gothosar, Carvela Lee, Brooke Manning, Maria Isabel Martinez, Kyisha Williams, and Kristen Zimmer.

Illustrated by Violeta Noy, photography by Alison Maxwell.

When we are children, we seek pleasure without shame, without the impulse to measure “too much of a good thing.” It’s as if we instinctively understand the word as the dictionary defines it: a feeling of happy satisfaction and enjoyment. So why then, as we grow older, does the concept of pleasure become more and more complicated? If desire is universal and pleasure is something we all want, why do we hide?

In this collection of poetry, creative prose, visual art, and honest conversation, 14 contributors talk about pleasure: where to find it, who gets to access it, and what keeps us from asking for what we truly desire.

84 pages, full-colour. Printed in Toronto.