Despite all the new and ever-advancing digital technologies that allow artists to represent their ideals of female perfection with more refinement, traditional views of what is beautiful for a woman have not changed that much, if Julius Wiedemann's Digital Beauties is to be our guide. Sure, the breasts may be a little perkier, the legs longer and leaner, the waists more circumscribed than is humanly possible. However, big tits, little waists, long legs, and perfect features are still the hard standard.

Digital Beauties is a collection of computer-generated women produced by European, American, and Japanese graphic artists. The portraits range from nearly photographic (as exemplified by artists like Alceu M. Baptistão and Rene Morel) to surreal alien/female creatures, like Takuya Imamura's dreamy, soft-textured portrayals of Japanese schoolgirls dressed up in animal costumes.

Textually, Digital Beauties could not be more sterile. Though not a how-to manual, it consists of biographies on each designer that offer little more than a resume: country of origin, education, employment, programs used, websites where work can be found, and contact information. The dryness of the text is a great disappointment because the very idea of generating a sensual idol within the depths of a powerful computer begs critical, if not poetic, analysis.

As you may have guessed, Digital Beauties is no pro-feminist book, as it's packed with women whose beauty, bodies, and situations are unattainable. These women are coming out of the minds of computer geeks, men (and a few women) who spend their days trying to construct virtual women they want to fuck. The painter of old had a gaze, a model, a body in the outside world--indeed an object of desire. What Digital Beauties presents is the future artist: a man whose models will not be the products of a gaze but an idea. Meaning, a desire without an object, without, ultimately, a woman. This book is fascinating.