Les vœux de l'amour fou is a series consisting of unique candles manufactured by Gambino, a renowned candlemaker in Catania, and christened by a priest before being reassembled by Pauline Curnier Jardin and Feel Good Cooperative with adornments made from fabric, drawings, and other mixed-media materials. The yellow hue of the candles is a signature of Gambino that, for Curnier Jardin and the collective of sex workers, resembles various bodily fluids during the melting process. The ongoing collaboration between Curnier Jardin and Feel Good Cooperative began during the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, when sex workers were disproportionately disadvantaged by statewide regulations. Instead of being paid for sexual acts, Curnier Jardin paid the sex workers for drawings, usually sexual in nature.

Originally intended to be carried during the procession of St. Agatha in Catania, the 15kg candle evokes the association of St. Agatha with breast cancer patients, victims of sexual abuse, and the region’s Mount Etna volcano, which erupted more violently after the martyr’s annual procession was postponed due to COVID-19. Following countless stories of the city of Catania being protected from lava by St. Agatha, the 2021 eruption, itself loaded with sexual imagery, covered the city in ash, as if the whole city had been burned.

Works from this series were presented at venues including Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin in 2022, as part of Curnier Jardin’s Preis der Nationalgalerie exhibition, and Palais de Tokyo, where they were shown as part of her 2026 solo exhibition.