Cat. No. 545.2 in 981B
Unaware and Aware, plate 11 of 18, from the illustrated book, One's Sleep (3)
- State/Variant:
- Version 2 of 2, only state
- Date:
- 2003
- Illustrated Book:
- One's Sleep (3) (View All)
- Themes:
- Body Parts, Faces & Portraits, Figures
- Techniques:
- Etching
- Description:
- Soft ground etching, with hand additions
- Support:
- Handmade Dieu Donné paper
- Dimensions:
- plate: 23 1/16 × 17 1/2" (58.6 × 44.5 cm); page (each): 38 1/2 × 28 5/8" (97.8 × 72.7 cm)
- Signature:
- "Louise Bourgeois" upper center sheet, page 3, pencil; "Louise Bourgeois" lower center sheet, page 40, pencil.
- Publisher:
- Osiris, New York
- Printer:
- Wingate Studio, Hinsdale, NH
- Edition:
- 12 (see Edition Information); plus an edition of 7 with multicolor hand additions, and an edition of 3 with red hand additions, and an edition of 3 with black hand additions
- Impression:
- "#3" lower center p. 40, pencil, artist's hand.
- Edition Information:
- Documentation was available from the Louise Bourgeois Studio for 2 bound examples of “One’s Sleep”: numbers 1 and 3. No documentation is available for the other bound or unbound examples, as of 2016 cataloguing.
The colophons found in books 1 and 3 differ with regard to Edition and Publisher.
Book 1:
Edition: “Ten bound books / Two unbound folio sets”
Publisher: “Designed and published by Benjamin Shiff”
Book 3:
Edition: “Nine bound books / Three unbound folio sets”
(Publisher’s notes, not included on the colophon, numbers the books 1-9 and I-III)
Publisher: “Published by Osiris”
The pagination in books 1 and 3 differ in that book 1 includes an additional blank spread before pp. 9-10 (with plates 1 and 2). Otherwise, the plates used and the order in which they appear is consistent in each. (See individual books)
Hand additions to the plates in books 1 and 3 vary considerably.
There are 4 published editions of this composition, unrelated to the books. One edition of version 1, state VI was issued with the title "Self Portrait." The three editions of the only state of version 2 are titled "Unaware and Aware."
In the edition of 7 impressions of version 2 with hand additions, each is designated by the artist as a "study." (Usually in this catalogue, the term “study” describes photocopies and tracings that were used in the process of developing a composition.) - State Changes and Additions:
- Changes from version 1: composition mirrored, enlarged, and partially transferred to a new plate, in soft ground etching.
- Pagination:
- Pages 25 and 26 of 41.
- Printer of Text:
- Wild Carrot Letterpress, Hadley, MA
- Background:
- Bourgeois first took up this subject as a print in honor of the birth of Peter Blum's daughter, Anna, in 1990. Peter Blum was a publisher of Bourgeois's prints and also an art dealer who showed her work at his gallery. The artist gave an inscribed impression of version 1, state VI to the Blum family as a gift. The Blums reproduced the impression on Anna's birth annoucement, a card measuring 7 3/4 x 5 1/2" closed.
Version 1, state VI (without chine collé) was published in 1994 to benefit The Museum of Modern Art, New York. - Curatorial Remarks:
- The plate dimensions could not be documented because this impression is not in MoMA's Collection and could not be examined in person. The plate dimensions are from the impressions in MoMA’s Collection. The sheet dimensions were provided by the Louise Bourgeois Studio.
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY
Self Portrait and Unaware and Aware
1990-2003
Source
recto: 1940
Oil and pencil on board
recto: 1940
Source
1940
Pencil on paper
1940
First Version
Version 1 of 2, state I of VI
1990
Version 1 of 2, state I of VI, variant
1990
Version 1 of 2, state II of VI
1990
Version 1 of 2, state II of VI, variant
1990
Version 1 of 2, state II of VI, variant
1990
Version 1 of 2, state II of VI, variant
1990
Version 1 of 2, state II of VI, variant
1990
Version 1 of 2, state II of VI, variant
1990
Version 1 of 2, state II of VI, variant
1990
Version 1 of 2, state III of VI
1990
Version 1 of 2, state III of VI, variant
1990
Version 1 of 2, state III of VI, variant
1990
Version 1 of 2, state IV of VI
1990
Version 1 of 2, state V of VI, variant
1990
Version 1 of 2, state V of VI, variant
1990
Version 1 of 2, state V of VI, variant
1990
Version 1 of 2, state VI of VI
1990
Version 1 of 2, state VI of VI
1990
Version 1 of 2, state VI of VI
1994
Second Version
Version 2 of 2, only state
1997-2003
Version 2 of 2, only state
1997-2003
Version 2 of 2, only state
1997-2003
Version 2 of 2, only state
1997-2003
Version 2 of 2, only state
1997-2003
Version 2 of 2, only state
1997-2003
Version 2 of 2, only state
1997-2003
Version 2 of 2, only state
1997-2003
Version 2 of 2, only state
1997-2003
Version 2 of 2, only state
2003
Version 2 of 2, only state
2003
Illustrated Book
2003
-
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION
-
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION
-
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION
-
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION
-
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION
-
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION
Louise Bourgeois,
One's Sleep,
2003Bourgeois's entire printed text for this volume appears on the pages cited below. The text is consistent throughout the documented books, although the page numbers vary slightly.
Cover:
One's Sleep [artist’s hand]
Text 1:
LOUISE BOURGEOIS
Text 2:
one's sleep
Text 3 (with plate 1):
The blue fear.
Text 4 (with plate 2):
The pink fear.
Text 5:
I need sleep.
Text 6 (with plate 3):
The comfort object, always present,
Text 7 (with plate 4):
the color blue,
the child.
the circling of children.
Text 8 (with plate 5):
I need sleep.
Text 9 (with plate 6):
To listen to the breathing, to my stomach,
to my intestines. I want to listen to them,
to expose them, to think about them,
to welcome them, to wait for them,
to take care of them, like a good rested mother.
Text 10 (with plate 7 and 8):
Sleep to reach peace, the restoration of silence and of peace.
The defenses are worthless, they do not exist. Kindliness,
healthy breathing, forgetting and forgiving, to let go.
Text 11:
Leniency and charity are necessary for the arrival of sleep.
I want to give, to exude, to give to give, to exude.
Text 12 (with plate 9):
My sleep is disturbed. The house of fear. Apprehension.
I fear the future, but I am also afraid of the past.
Yes even the past, but also the present.
I am afraid of others, but mostly of myself.
Text 13 (with plate 10):
The fear to waste one's time,
the fear to waste one's luck,
the fear of the past;
nostalgia.
The fear of the present,
the fear to love,
the fear of the future;
apprehension.
Text 14 (with plate 11):
The ransom, the cost, the effect of fear on others.
The fear that does not know itself.
Unaware and aware.
Text 15 (with plate 12 and 13):
The underground life of fear, what it becomes.
Text 16 (with plate 14):
The fear and the sugar, the adrenaline.
To have the energy and persistence to replace fear by trust.
Text 17 (with plate 15):
I'm going to wait until my breathing goes down and gets regularized, to yawn,
Text 18 (with plate 16):
to do one's nails, to comb the hair, to mend, to draw, to write one's journal.
Text 19 (with plate 17):
One's sleep.
Text 20:
To lose one's way,
to lose one's friend,
to lose one's breath.
Text 21:
To love.
Text 22 (with plate 18):
Leave the house of fear, the window is open.
