Book launch and reading: Brian O’Doherty, The Crossdresser’s Secret
4–6pm
Simone Subal Gallery, 131 Bowery, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10002
Brian O’Doherty will read from his new novel, The Crossdresser’s Secret (Sternberg Press) on the closing weekend of his two-venue solo exhibition Connecting the… at P! and Simone Subal Gallery.
One of the eighteenth century’s most mysterious figures was the Chevalier d’Eon, who lived as both man and woman, French spy and European celebrity. Written from the perspective of this historical figure, the novel by Brian O’Doherty—artist and author of, among others, the critical milestone Inside the White Cube and the Booker Prize-shortlisted The Deposition of Father McGreevy—reveals d’Eon’s radical modernity, certified by his attitudes to gender and his examination of his own nature. He ponders the social determinants of sexual identity and studies the manners and conventions governing discourse between the sexes. At the same time, as diplomat and spy, he is involved in the power politics of nations.