Gupta, Sunil: I Call You My Love

I call you my love contains an extended, years-long correspondence exchanged between lovers Sunil Gupta and Steve Dodd from the mid-’80s to the early ‘90s. During this time, Steve was completing his PhD in America while Sunil worked in London, and their frequent and detailed letters are a testament to the strength of their transatlantic romantic connection. In addition to the letters, this publication includes photographs of the couple, taken by Sunil, alongside ephemera from their written exchanges - envelopes, poetry, sketches, and newspaper clippings. The book also features the series, “Pretended” Family Relationships, composed of Sunil’s photographs and accompanied by lines from Steve’s poems. This breadth of material serves as an archive not only of one couple’s deep emotional, physical, and creative long-distance partnership but also of queer love and community thriving in the face of oppression and illness. The letters are suffused with contextual references, documenting the historical reality for queer individuals living through the ‘80s and’90s.

In the UK, a Thatcherite government introduced Section 28 in 1988, repressing queer visibility in mainstream culture and legally formalising a growing, nationwide homophobic sentiment. References to Thatcher and Section 28 populate the letters, as the two men express concerns over the dangerous effects of this legislation. Indeed, the series title “Pretended” Family Relationships is taken directly from the language of Section 28. By reclaiming this language, using it to describe instead images of queer couples and photographs of people protesting the Clause, Sunil and Steve enact a defiance that encompasses both public rebellion and the private act of existence-as-resistance.

Title: I Call You My Love
Publisher, Year: Trolly Books, 2026
Design: Eugenie Dodd Typographics & Karen Burbano
Format: Hardback
Size, Pages: 31.5 x 23.3cm, 184 pages
Illustrations: 80 black and white, 97 colour
ISBN: 978-1-907112-76-8