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LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Louise Bourgeois: Complete Books & Prints
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Cat. No. 995.2/IV

Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition

State/Variant:
Version 2 of 2, state IV of IX
Date:
1995-1999
Alternate Title:
Two Personages
Themes:
Architecture
Techniques:
Drypoint, Engraving, Photogravure, Relief
Description:
Engraving and drypoint over photogravure, printed in relief
Support:
Smooth, wove paper
Dimensions:
plate: 7 1/2 × 5 11/16" (19 × 14.5 cm); sheet: 14 9/16 × 10 13/16" (37 × 27.5 cm)
Signature:
Not signed
Publisher:
unpublished
Printer:
Harlan & Weaver, New York for engraving and drypoint,
Renaissance Press, Ashuelot, NH for photogravure (see Curatorial Remarks)
Edition:
1 known impression of version 2, state IV
Impression:
Not numbered
Edition Information:
Proof before the editioning of version 2, state IX in the second edition.
State Changes and Additions:
Changes from version 1: composition transferred to new plate in photogravure (see Curatorial Remarks).
Changes from version 2, state III, in engraving: interior of left structure reinforced.
Background:
Bourgeois issued the first edition of “He Disappeared into Complete Silence” in 1947. (See cat. no. 1228.) At that time, while actively working in printmaking at the Atelier 17 workshop, she decided to create an illustrated book edition with hopes of making her work more widely known. As it turned out, the book was not a success and Bourgeois never completed the announced edition of 54 examples. It frustrated her that she had never finished the project and, much later, in the early 1980s, she began efforts to reissue the book.

Bourgeois could not locate the printing plates for the nine illustrations, so she set about producing new ones. She worked first, in 1984, with printer Deli Sacilotto, of Iris Editions, New York, to create photogravures using 1947 impressions of Plates 1, 3, and the “Alternative Plate.” Then, in 1990, she created engraved versions of Plates 2 and 6 with the assistance of Christian Guérin of Gravure, New York. First, though, in order to determine whether Guérin’s engraving was suitable, she asked him to engrave two similar compositions. (See “Atlantic Avenue: Transparent Houses” [cat. nos. 1054.1, .2, .3].)

In 1993, Bourgeois finally turned the project over to printer Felix Harlan of Harlan & Weaver, New York, with whom she had begun to work on a regular basis. Harlan would ultimately serve as both printer and coordinator of the second edition. He started out by making reprints of some of the 1983 photogravures created with Sacilotto, and the 1990 engravings created with Guérin. In addition, since by then Bourgeois had located three of the original printing plates from the 1940s (two versions of Plate 3 and one version of Plate 4), Harlan made reprints from those, but they were too distressed for use in a future edition. He also attempted to remake Plates 5, 8, and 9 in drypoint and/or etching. Finally, Bourgeois decided to work with photogravure as the starting-off point for all the compositions in the book, in order to keep the plates as close as possible to those of the 1947 edition. In 1995, new photogravure plates were made by Renaissance Press from photographs of the first edition in the New York Public Library (cat. no. 1228, Example 12). Working with Harlan, Bourgeois ultimately re-worked these photogravure plates with engraving, also adding aquatint, drypoint, scorper and watercolor additions in some instances.

The 1947 first edition of “He Disappeared into Complete Silence” includes “vintage” examples issued in 1947 or thereabouts, as well as “assembled” examples that Bourgeois compiled in the 1980s from prints and texts that remained in her possession. Some of the “assembled” examples, including the one in the New York Public Library, have ten plates rather than the standard nine plates. The tenth plate is a composition called “Alternative Plate” for cataloguing purposes. The second edition includes this “Alternative Plate,” as well as an entirely new eleventh plate titled, “Spider.”

Bourgeois worked intermittently on this project for over a decade, with the second edition appearing in 2005 as a benefit publication for the Department of Prints and Illustrated Books, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. In addition to eleven plates, the book includes text pages from 1947 that had remained with Bourgeois, as well as a new table of contents, foreword, and colophon. The housing was constructed to match that of the 1947 first edition.
Artist’s Remarks:
"This is a great change of mood. This is a climax... it is a fight... a fight for survival. They are not alienated here; they are very engaged." This plate is the "only one with a fight... In the others, they are hiding, running away, or alienated. This is a blasting; a total confrontation. But it turns out badly. Every time you break things, you dig your own grave; you always lose ground. If you risk confrontation and blow up, you lose; you never have the last word." In the later states of the print, "there is an attempt to restrain the hostility by hiding in the house." Color was added to a later plate in an attempt "to make it more palatable... less raw... to restrain it." (Quote cited in Wye, Deborah and Carol Smith. “The Prints of Louise Bourgeois.” New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1994, p. 89.)
Curatorial Remarks:
According to printer Paul Taylor, of Renaissance Press, the print workshop re-located from Hinsdale to Ashuelot, New Hampshire. On the colophon, the place is given as Hinsdale.

The Renaissance Press made photogravures from photographs of all ten plates in the New York Public Library’s example of “He Disappeared into Complete Silence” (cat. no. 1228, Example 12) to serve as the starting-off point for the second edition (see Background).
Other Remarks:
According to Felix Harlan, of Harlan & Weaver, New York, Bourgeois tried this plate in relief because she was looking for a technique that would distinguish plate 7 from the other plates in the book. In the end, she used scorper instead of relief printing to set this plate apart.
MoMA Credit Line:
Gift of the artist
MoMA Accession Number:
1348.2008

Plate 7, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence
1946-2005

First Version

Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence. 1946-1947
Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence
Version 1 of 2, state I of XII
1946-1947
Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence. 1946-1947
Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence
Version 1 of 2, state II of XII
1946-1947
Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence. 1946-1947
Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence
Version 1 of 2, state III of XII
1946-1947
Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence. 1946-1947
Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence
Version 1 of 2, state IV of XII
1946-1947
Published NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 15). 1947
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 15)
Version 1 of 2, state IV of XII
1947
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence. 1946-1947
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence
Version 1 of 2, state V of XII
1946-1947
Published NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 11). 1947
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 11)
Version 1 of 2, state VI of XII
1947
Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence. 1946-1947
Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence
Version 1 of 2, state VII of XII
1946-1947
Published NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 12). 1947
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 12)
Version 1 of 2, state VIII of XII
1947
Published NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Louise Bourgeois. Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 13). 1947
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 13)
Version 1 of 2, state IX of XII
1947
Published Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 1). 1947
Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 1)
Version 1 of 2, state X of XII
1947
Published NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 18). 1947
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 18)
Version 1 of 2, state X of XII
1947
Published NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 2). 1947
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 2)
Version 1 of 2, state XI of XII
1947
Published NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 3). 1947
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 3)
Version 1 of 2, state XI of XII
1947
Published NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 4). 1947
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 4)
Version 1 of 2, state XI of XII
1947
Published NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 5). 1947
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 5)
Version 1 of 2, state XI of XII
1947
Published NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 7). 1947
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 7)
Version 1 of 2, state XI of XII
1947
Published NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 8). 1947
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 8)
Version 1 of 2, state XI of XII
1947
Published NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 9). 1947
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 9)
Version 1 of 2, state XI of XII
1947
Published NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 10). 1947
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 10)
Version 1 of 2, state XI of XII
1947
Published NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 17). 1947
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 17)
Version 1 of 2, state XI of XII
1947
Published NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 19). 1947
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 19)
Version 1 of 2, state XI of XII
1947
Published NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 6). 1947
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 6)
Version 1 of 2, state XII of XII
1947
Published NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 14). 1947
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 14)
Version 1 of 2, state XII of XII
1947
Published NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 16). 1947
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 16)
Version 1 of 2, state XII of XII
1947

Second Version

Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition. 1995
Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition
Version 2 of 2, state I of IX
1995
Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition. 1995
Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition
Version 2 of 2, state I of IX, variant
1995
Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition. 1995
Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition
Version 2 of 2, state I of IX, variant
1995
Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition. 1995
Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition
Version 2 of 2, state II of IX
1995
Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition. 1995-1999
Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition
Version 2 of 2, state II of IX
1995-1999
Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition. 1995-1999
Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition
Version 2 of 2, state III of IX
1995-1999
Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition. 1995-1999
Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition
Version 2 of 2, state III of IX, variant
1995-1999
Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition. 1995-1999
Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition
Version 2 of 2, state III of IX, variant
1995-1999
Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition. 1995-1999
Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition
Version 2 of 2, state III of IX, variant
1995-1999
Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition. 1995-1999
Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition
Version 2 of 2, state III of IX, variant
1995-1999
Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition. 1995-1999
Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition
Version 2 of 2, state IV of IX
1995-1999
Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition. 1995-1999
Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition
Version 2 of 2, state V of IX
1995-1999
Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition. 1995-1999
Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition
Version 2 of 2, state VI of IX
1995-1999
Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition. 1995-1999
Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition
Version 2 of 2, state VII of IX, variant
1995-1999
Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition. 1999
Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition
Version 2 of 2, state VII of IX, variant
1999
Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition. 1999
Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition
Version 2 of 2, state VII of IX, variant
1999
Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition. 1999-2003
Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition
Version 2 of 2, state VIII of IX
1999-2003
Published Louise Bourgeois. Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition. 2005
Plate 7 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition
Version 2 of 2, state IX of IX
2005

Illustrated Book
1947

Louise Bourgeois. He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition. 1947
He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first...
1947
More About This Work

Illustrated Book
2005

Louise Bourgeois. He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition. 2005
He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second...
2005
More About This Work

Illustrated Book
1947 (first edition); 2005 (second edition)

Louise Bourgeois. He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first and second editions. 1947 (first edition); 2005 (second edition)
He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first and...
1947 (first edition); 2005 (second edition)
More About This Work