LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Descriptive Title:

English translation: "At the Old Tapestries: 44 Sentences by Louise Bourgeois"

Author:

The artist

Themes:

Words

Techniques:

Relief, Screenprint

Description:

Illustrated book with 1 screenprint frontispiece, 1 letterpress facsimile, and 44 letterpress texts

Support:

Smooth, wove paper

Dimensions:

overall: 13 9/16 × 10 1/4 × 1 7/16" (34.5 × 26.1 × 3.6 cm). Sheet sizes vary throughout. See individual.

Signature:

"Louise Bourgeois" lower center colophon, pencil.

Publisher:

Yvon Lambert Gallery, Paris, Paris

Printer:

Derriere L'Etoile Studios, New York,
Peter Kruty Editions, Brooklyn

Edition:

108; plus 20 H.C., 10 A.P.

Impression:

"XVI/XX" lower center colophon, pencil, unknown hand.

Edition Information:

The 108 examples in the edition are numbered 1-108. The 20 H.C.s are numbered I-XX. The A.P.s are numbered E.A.1-E.A.10.

There are also 10 unnumbered "exemplaires nominatifs" reserved for collectors of the entire "Une rêverie émanée de mes loisirs" series of illustrated books (see Background). There are also 2 unnumbered examples for the artist and editor. All are signed by the artist.

Pagination:

44 numbered text pages, 1 screenprint frontispiece, 1 facsimile business card bookmark, and 1 double-sided colophon.

Printer of Text:

Atelier Mérat-Auger, Paris

Housing:

Unbound. Publisher's clamshell box: red fabric lined with white paper, made by Les Etablissements Dermont-Duval, Paris.

Background:

"Aux Vieilles Tapisseries: 44 Sentences de Louise Bourgeois" is number 11 of 23 from the ongoing series of artist's books "Une rêverie émanée de mes loisirs" (Musings from My Leisures). The series title refers to the writing of Jean-Claude Lebensztejn, a French art historian and critic. Participating artists are invited to create a book that may or may not take direct inspiration from Lebensztejn. The artists can realize the project alone, or in collaboration with an author of their choice. Other participating artists include Christian Boltanski, Giulio Paolini, and Lawrence Weiner.

For her project, Bourgeois used her own writing and took excerpts from various loose sheets, diaries, and notebooks. Her book is named after the Bourgeois family's tapestry restoration business. The artist even reproduced her father's business card as a bookmark. (The original can be seen below in Related Works in Other Mediums.) To realize her project, Bourgeois sought the assistance of Brigitte Cornand, a French filmmaker who was close to the artist in the last years of her life.

MoMA Credit Line:

Gift of the artist

MoMA Accession Number:

1502.2012.1-46

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY