Exquisite Corpse

In Exquisite Corpse, Maryam Diener transports us to the wildly creative world of the female Surrealists, gifted and powerful figures often marginalised by their male contemporaries. Known for seeing women as muses and objects of desire rather than artists in their own right, André Breton, co-founder of Surrealism, wrote: ''The problem of woman is the most marvellous and disturbing problem in all the world.'' For him and his clique women were dangerous and alluring, but always ''other''.

In a series of dreamlike fragments from the minds of five brilliant artists, Maryam weaves together the destinies of these half-forgotten pioneers as their lives intersect geographically and emotionally. This is the story of women who fought to prove their existence.

Maryam Diener was born in Iran and attended the Sorbonne in Paris before receiving her Masters from Columbia University. She is the author of The Moon (1998), Sans Te Dire Adieu (2007) and Beyond Black There is No Colour: The Story of Forough Farrokhzad (Quartet Books, 2020). In 2012 she co-founded Éditions Moon Rainbow, a publishing company specialising in limited-edition books on poetry and the visual arts including There Must Be Someone to Rewrite Love, which features contributions from Bei Dao and Francesco.