Cancelled Confessions

Cancelled Confessions is considered to be the masterpiece of surrealist writer and pioneering queer theorist Claude Cahun.

Published in 1930 it defied description (it still does) and also showcased the extraordinary photomontages that Cahun and her lifelong partner, Marcel Moore, created together.

In 1930, Claude Cahun (born Lucy Schwob) and her partner, artist Marcel Moore (born Suzanne Malherbe) published their surrealist masterpiece, Aveux non Avenus, translated here as Cancelled Confessions and available in English for the first time in twenty years.

Susan de Muth’s revised translation of Cancelled Confessions has a new introduction by art historian Amelia Groom which contextualises the work within contemporary queer discourse. The book’s nine sections are prefaced by dreamlike photomontages (reproduced in high definition here) which reflect, illuminate and converse with the verbal content. Upon publication, Cancelled Confessions simply baffled all but a few of Cahun’s friends and admirers, leading Cahun to describe herself as, ‘An unwanted Cassandra’.