Codex of Pleasure and Pain is a literary tribute to Clive Barker’s Hellraiser, the work that shattered conventions of horror by fusing terror with desire, pain with ecstasy, and flesh with the unthinkable. From the darkness of The Hellbound Heart to the cinematic vision of the Cenobites, Barker revealed a universe where boundaries collapse and every craving is a doorway to transformation.

In this anthology, ten writers follow that unholy invitation. Each, in their own voice, ventures into the labyrinth of Barker’s obsessions: the symbolic and the grotesque, the philosophical and the visceral, the mythic and the transgressive. Their stories are dialogues with Barker’s legacy, probing the fragile borders between life and death, longing and nightmare, horror and dark grace.

Here you will encounter the original visions that nonetheless echo Barker’s themes, power, metamorphosis, mutilation, the seduction of the unknown. These tales strip away comfort, exposing identities that unravel, bodies that betray, and desires that consume. They experiment, taking risks that push horror into new realms of imagination.

Codex of Pleasure and Pain is both invocation and exploration: a descent into spaces where horror is alive, still capable of disturbing, provoking, and transcending. For longtime devotees of Barker or curious newcomers drawn to the mythos of Hellraiser, this volume offers the chance to open the box and to confront unsettling truths about fear, desire, and the monstrous within ourselves.