LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Themes:

Architecture, Figures, Objects

Techniques:

Engraving, Etching

Description:

Etching and engraving, with black and red ink, blue watercolor, white correction fluid, and pencil additions

Support:

Smooth, wove paper

Dimensions:

plate: 11 7/8 x 16 3/4" (30.2 x 42.6 cm); sheet: 17 13/16 x 21 1/8" (45.3 x 53.6 cm)

Signature:

Not signed

Inscription:

Verso: "let us see a show of hands" lower middle sheet, pencil, artist's hand.

Publisher:

unpublished

Printer:

Harlan & Weaver, New York

Edition:

2 known variant impressions of version 1, state II

Impression:

Not numbered

Edition Information:

Proof before the editioning of version 3.

State Changes and Additions:

Changes from version 1, state I, in etching: several figures' hands and arms delineated.
Changes from version 1, state I, in engraving: several figures' legs further delineated.
Changes from version 1, state I, in drypoint: headboard and footboard reinforced.

Background:

"Eight in Bed" developed out of another composition with seven figures in a bed. That imagery dealt with a childhood memory of times when the artist and her two siblings, along with two cousins who lived with them, would join her parents in bed. According to Bourgeois's assistant, Jerry Gorovoy, there was no specific symbolic meaning to the addition of thie eighth (and in some studies, ninth) figure; it was simply part of her further experimentation with the composition.

Curatorial Remarks:

The photocopy studies for this composition indicate that it derived from the Untitled composition, plate 5, from the illustrated book "Metamorfosis" (seen below in Related Works in the Catalogue). The two compositions could have been catalogued as Versions in one Evolving Composition Diagram. They were catalogued separately because Untitled, plate 5, is from an illustrated book, making it difficult to present the two compositions as one.

Other Remarks:

According to the artist's assistant, Jerry Gorovoy, the subject of beds stems not only from their symbolic resonance for Bourgeois but also from her interest in their geometric and architectural forms. The bed motif is found in Bourgeois's drawings, sculptures, and installations, as well as in her prints (see Related Works in Other Mediums).

MoMA Credit Line:

Gift of the artist

MoMA Accession Number:

749.2008

This Work in Other Collections:

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Cambridge, MA

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY