Hannah Shell

Cabinet 33: Deception Hannah Shell

Man is purported to be the only animal that can lie by telling the truth. Whether we are dealing with the confidence games of cheats and forgers, with pranksters whose stunts reveal unacknowledged contradictions in society or with apparently simple ways of fooling the eye, deception remains a powerful way of showing a truth. Put your hand on your wallet, because Cabinet issue 33, with its special section on Deception, intends to take the trusting reader on as many rides as it can. The themed section features Christine Wertheim on the fabricated Australian Modernist poet Ern Malley; D. Graham Burnett on deception's relationship to conception; Hannah Shell on the varieties of camouflage; and a special art project by Julieta Aranda. Elsewhere in the issue: Valerie Smith and Matt Mullican on marbledust paintings; Cecilia Gronberg and Jonas Magnusson on the stranded whale of Gothenburg; and Emily Thompson on the transition from silent film to the talkies.