Gradiva is equivalent of love, an image of love, one which is not only an element of imagination, but also enters into what is real. In other words: the image becomes the reali- ty for a moment. Perversion finds its place. The only possible love, says Barthes, is the impossible love. When someone loved is not available but exists as an image and as the image can last forever. The love-desire is always in mad relation with what’s impossible. But this madness is real in the unreal world of not-being together.