Paris, When It''s Naked, followed by Of Cities & Women

Towards the end of the last millennium, and the birth of a ''united'' Europe, Paris, When It''s Naked paints a charged, reforming world. Etel Adnan inhabits Paris, undresses it, observes its many incarnations past and present, and the refugee men and women of colour kept at the city''s margins. In this Adnan offers startling meditations on gender, place, culture, landscape, vision, eros, illness, mortality, and war. Of Cities & Women (Letters to Fawwaz) is Adnan''s offbeat response to a commission to write a study on feminism for a special issue of the magazine Zawaya ''On Arab Women''. Instead of an essay, her reflections unfold in a series of letters sent to her editor, Fawwaz Traboulsi, spanning two years as she travelled from Barcelona, Murcia, Aix-en-Provence, Skopelos, Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, and Beirut. First published in 1993 by The Post-Apollo Press (run from 1982 to 2012 by Adnan''s lifelong partner the artist Simone Fattal), these two books are published here together for the first time, by way of celebrating the enduring worth of Etel Adnan''s contribution to the world of letters. Adnan was born on 24 February 1925 and died in Paris on 14 November 2021. See more