Offering some of Cahun's writings never before translated into English alongside a wide array of her artworks and those of her contemporaries, this book is a must-have for any fan of this iconic artist, now in paperback.
In the turmoil of the 1920s and '30s, Claude Cahun challenged gender stereotypes with her powerful photographs, montages, and writings, works that appear to our twenty-first-century eyes as utterly contemporary, or even from the future. She wrote poetry and prose for major French literary magazines, worked in avant-garde theater, and was both comrade of and critical outsider to the Surrealists. Exist Otherwise is the first work in English to tell the full story of Claude Cahun's art and life, one that celebrates and makes accessible Cahun's remarkable vision.
Jennifer L. Shaw embeds Cahun within the exciting social and artistic milieu of Paris between the wars. She examines her relationship with Marcel Moore - Cahun's stepsister, lover, and life partner-who was a central collaborator helping make some of the most compelling photographs and photomontages of Cahun's oeuvre, dreamscapes of disassembled portraiture and scenes that simultaneously fascinate and terrify. Shaw follows Cahun into the horrors of World War II and the Nazi occupation of the island of Jersey off the coast of Normandy, and she explores the powerful and dangerous ways Cahun resisted it. Reading through her letters and diaries, Shaw brings Cahun's ideas and feelings to the foreground, offering an intimate look at how she thought about photography, surrealism, the histories of women artists, and queer culture.
'As a Jewish, gender-nonconforming artist living amid the rise of fascism and widespread anti-Semitism, Cahun's artwork challenged social norms of the time. The new book Exist Otherwise...features her photographs, sculptures, and illustrations along with diary entries and writing clips that have never before been translated in English.' The Cut
'Claude Cahun may not be particularly well known outside the art world, but this highly readable biography of the twentieth-century French writer, artist, and photographer ought to help change this situation. Shaw has written a fascinating book about a gender-bending lesbian intellectual who challenged ideas of gender and sexuality in both her life and art. . . . Filled with reproductions of photographs and detailed descriptions and analyses of her writings, Exist Otherwise is a comprehensive introduction to Claude Cahun's art and writing. With any luck it will bring readers back to her unique body of work.' Gay & Lesbian Review
Industry Reviews
"Claude Cahun's writings and artworks tell the story of her own critical self-discovery, and Shaw follows suit, placing the works at the center of her gripping biography of Cahun as a woman artist and lesbian who managed to 'exist otherwise' long before transgender and gay rights. In the graceful flow of Shaw's prose, Cahun's photographic projects illuminate and amplify her life, from the French provinces to Surrealist Paris to the occupied island of Jersey, where her guerilla anti-Nazi art led to harrowing arrest and near execution. Shaw calls Cahun her hero, and convinces us that Cahun should be ours as well, in our moment of Brexit and Trump."
--Christina Kiaer, Northwestern University "CAA Reviews"
"Scholars of Cahun will appreciate Shaw's survey as a well-organized and well-researched biographical resource, as well as a compendium of Cahun's extensive oeuvre. Exist Otherwise is a valuable contribution to the scant body of English-language scholarship on Cahun, one that hopefully opens the door to further excavations and analyses toward an 'otherwise' history in the face of more dominant accounts of the era."--Erin Silver "CAA Reviews"
"Exist Otherwise is elegantly written and beautifully illustrated with artwork, and includes an appendix with short, translated excerpts of Cahun's writings. . . . In Shaw's telling, Cahun models how to practice radical art and action during politically fraught times like hers--and our own."-- "Wellesley Review"
"As a Jewish, gender-nonconforming artist living amid the rise of fascism and widespread anti-Semitism, Cahun's artwork challenged social norms of the time. The new book Exist Otherwise . . . features her photographs, sculptures, and illustrations along with diary entries and writing clips that have never before been translated in English."-- "The Cut"
"Claude Cahun may not be particularly well known outside the art world, but this highly readable biography of the twentieth-century French writer, artist, and photographer ought to help change this situation. Shaw has written a fascinating book about a gender-bending lesbian intellectual who challenged ideas of gender and sexuality in both her life and art. . . . Filled with reproductions of photographs and detailed descriptions and analyses of her writings, Exist Otherwise is a comprehensive introduction to Claude Cahun's art and writing. With any luck it will bring readers back to her unique body of work."-- "Gay & Lesbian Review"
