Little known until recent years, Claude Cahun (1894-1954) is currently the focus of a great deal of international attention. The first Canadian solo exhibition of her astonishing self-portraits, Don't Kiss Me: Disruptions of the Self in the Work of Claude Cahun, is at the Sherwood Village Branch of the Dunlop Art Gallery (www.dunlopartgallery.org) in Regina from Dec. 17 to Jan. 30, 2000. Born Lucy Schwob, Cahun was a poet, actress, sculptor, photomonteur and sometime-associate of the French surrealists who gained some notoriety as a political and sexual revolutionary. Like Cindy Sherman and other contemporary artists some 50 years later, Cahun explored how the body is read according to cultural codes. Using costumes, masks and theatrical make-up to challenge normative views of women, she postulated a new concept of identity that left room for ambiguity and the unknown. During World War II she was arrested by the Nazis for openly resisting their occupation of the Isle of Jersey. Much of her work was destroyed and she was sentenced to death. Fortunately, the war ended before her scheduled execution. FIGURE