A FRESH bid to criminalise men who pay for sex could be launched.

City councillor and chairman of the Glasgow Violence Against Women Partnership (GWAP) James Coleman said he wanted to make it illegal to buy sex in Scotland.

He previously led a failed campaign in 2009 for laws to target people who pay for sex.

The move came as the councillor unveiled a controversial exhibition at Glasgow's Museum of Modern Art which puts into the spotlight the brutal views of men who buy sex.

Organisers behind Unmasked, which opens tomorrow, hope it will change attitudes to prostitution and show that demand by men is the main driver of the sex industry.

There are two works - Invisible Men, which shows 'reviews' of prostitutes posted on a website, overlaid on to white masks and framed by a price tag showing the amount paid to the sex worker.

Memoirs show shocking and explicit comments from men who have paid for sex compiled like poetry, into three bound books. The artwork requires the visitor to put on white cotton gloves as part of the experience.

Mr Coleman admitted it was "brutal", but he urged people to see it. He said: "It's confrontational, we hope it makes people think. But more importantly we hope it throws the spotlight on the men.

"These men are the ones that cause prostitution so it's time that society tackles the demand and that's the way Glasgow's going.

"We feel we want the same laws as Scandinavia where it's illegal to buy sex.

"We tried to get a bill through the Scottish Parliament. We hope to resurrect that bill and get it through the parliament at Holyrood.

"And anybody who wants to know why we are doing this? It's quite straightforward. Come and read the script and then let me know what you think about prostitution."

The over-18s exhibition will be managed by an invigilator and is backed by ex-prostitute Tanya Rhodes, part of Space International, which lobbies governments to take action on the sex industry.

The 36-year-old said: "For a long time the discussion about prostitution has been about the prostitutes. It's time that we get to see how the men who buy sex think about the women that they buy."

rachel.loxton@ eveningtimes.co.uk