I.N.R.I.
In the name of a supposed blasphemy: with Inri (1998), Betthina Rheims and Serge Bramly tell the story of Jesus’ life using the contemporary means of photography.
For Le Figaro, reporting the indignation of the Archbishop of Paris, supported by the Chief Rabbi and the rector of the Paris Mosque, the book is ‘blasphemous in its vulgarity’ (27 September, 1988).
The cover, chosen by the publisher (and not by the authors) shows a bare-breasted woman crucified.
After a complaint was lodged by a fundamentalist priest in Bordeaux, an urgent court order was issued.
The illustrated book was banned from public display in three Parisian bookshops. A journalist of L’Écho du Centre wrote of ‘rampant censorship’ (October 8, 1998).
Some weeks later, this decision was annulled by the Appeal Court who condemned the priest to indemnify one of the three bookshops concerned.