CLAUDE CAHUN (LUCY SCHWOB) | AVEUX NON AVENUS. PRÉFACE DE PIERRE MAC ORLAN. PARIS: ÉDITIONS DU CARREFOUR, 1930

CLAUDE CAHUN (LUCY SCHWOB)

AVEUX NON AVENUS. PRÉFACE DE PIERRE MAC ORLAN. PARIS: ÉDITIONS DU CARREFOUR, 1930

4to (8 3/4 x 6 3/4 in.; 222 x 172 mm). 10 heliogravures by Marcel Moore (Suzanne Malherbe) after projects by Cahun. Publisher's white wrappers, spine and both covers lettered in black, grey, and red; spine tanned and frayed at foot, covers with some shelf-wear and soiling. Modern black buckram clamshell case, with red paper spine label and circular red paper label reproducing the design on the lower cover of the book.

PROVENANCE

Jean Ryeul (presentation inscription and letter from the author)

CATALOGUE NOTE

First edition, copy 14 of 48 hors commerce copies (of a whole edition of 497). Presentation copy, inscribed by Cahun on the half-title to poet Jean Ryeul (Maurice Voirand), "a Jean Ryeul, au poéte que j'admire et que j'aime — et qui est mon ami. Claude Cahun. Paris – juin 1930."  

Laid in: an autograph letter signed from Cahun to Jean Ryeul (1 1/2 pages, Paris, 23 June 1930), which accompanied this book which was sent to the poet in Asnières. Cahun also suggests that she and Suzanne meet up with him when he is next in Paris.

Much has been written in recent years about the gender-fluid writer, sculptor, and photographer Claude Cahun (1894–1954) and her companion Marcel Moore (Suzanne Malherbe). This statement from Cahun's autobiography sheds light on her entire oeuvre: "Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation. Neuter is the only gender that always suits me." Her art and her spirit have been kept alive by a number of well-known devotees. Notable among them was David Bowie, who created a multi-media exhibition of Cahun's art in the gardens of Manhattan's General Theological Seminary in 2007.

Aveux non avenus (Unavowed Confessions) is a collection of essays and recorded dreams, justly celebrated for the remarkable collaborative photo-montages of Cahun and Moore.