Toilets as art, USA

Photo © Cynthia Consentino

Travellers know how to appreciate a decent washroom. We’ve seen far too many vile pits and squatters to be anything but delighted when a well-designed, squeaky-clean john comes along.

But the picture-perfect public washrooms of Wisconsin’s John Michael Kohler Arts Center are in a whole different league. The gallery commissioned several American artists to custom design the tiles and the fixtures in each of their seven bathrooms – with fabulously quirky results.

They range from daintily Delft-tiled urinals, to walls smothered in women’s underwear, and a sculptural homage to children’s toys. And despite the centre’s notable exhibitions, the toilets remain its most famous feature.

So don’t be shy to take a peek, or indeed a leak!

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