Vice magazine has removed a feature showing models re-enacting the suicides of famous female authors after several complaints from readers and commentators.
The ‘Last Words’ feature included photographs depicting the deaths of authors such as Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf and Iris Chang.
After attracting scathing criticism across social networking sites and a number of direct complaints, the piece was removed from the Vice website yesterday afternoon.
Press Gazette understands the feature has been published in the US print edition, but will not feature in the UK version.
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A statement from Vice editors said: “Last Words is a fashion spread featuring models reenacting the suicides of female authors who tragically ended their own lives. It is part of our 2013 Fiction Issue, one that is entirely dedicated to female writers, photographers, illustrators, painters, and other contributors.
“The fashion spreads in VICE Magazine are always unconventional and approached with an art editorial point-of-view rather than a typical fashion photo-editorial one. Our main goal is to create artful images, with the fashion message following, rather than leading.
??”’Last Words’ was created in this tradition and focused on the demise of a set of writers whose lives we very much wish weren’t cut tragically short, especially at their own hands. We will no longer display ‘Last Words’ on our website and apologise to anyone who was hurt or offended.”
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