A fashion spread in the upcoming Fiction Issue of the publication VICE proved controversial because of its restaging of suicides performed by a series of famous female writers.

In the feature, entitled Last Words, photographer Annabel Mehran poses models to imitate the deaths of authors such as Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath and Charlotte Perkins. Each picture lists the writers' birth and death dates, location, age and cause of death -- along with the requisite fashion credits and prices.

As an example of the chilling photos, the depiction of the death of late Taiwanese writer San Mao shows the model wrapping a pair of tights around her neck, followed by a credit to the London-based brand Look.

Jezebel.com's Jenna Sauers, who described the spread as "almost breathtakingly tasteless," wrote of the San Mao photo that "Vice includes a fashion credit for the tights. Just in case you want to go buy the same ones, I guess?"

Sauers also noted that some of the writers portrayed had died recently, including historian Iris Chang, who died in 2004 and left behind a two-year-old son. The spread's imagery of her death could be "distressing" to their living families and friends, according to the report.

Salon.com writer Michele Filgate suggested that the spread is less art and more "editorial decision to get more page views - and perhaps to appear cool and above outrage, while simultaneously stoking it."

She also questioned the inherent sexism of the spread's content.

"Many famous male writers have committed suicide - David Foster Wallace, Ernest Hemingway, Hunter S. Thompson, just to name a few," she continued. "So why is this spread women only? Is this meant to imply that women are the weaker sex, are frail, are beautiful in their frailness?"

Helen Lewis of British newspaper The Guardian also feared that the graphic imagery could spark a rise in copycat attempts.

"Every year in England and Wales, about 24,000 young people between the age of 10 and 19 attempt suicide," wrote Lewis. "What will children in that kind of distress see when they look at those Vice pictures? They will see a menu."

The fame of those portrayed could even make a potentially terrible situation much worse: "Using famous women makes it worse, because vulnerable people can fixate on a favorite writer and identify with them."

Since the controversy arose on Monday, the magazine issued an apology and pulled the spread from its website.

"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," said a magazine statement to Fox News. "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 apologize to anyone who was hurt or offended."

Tags: vice magazine