LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Themes:

Body Parts, Faces & Portraits, Figures

Techniques:

Etching

Description:

Soft ground etching, with red conté additons

Support:

Paper, mounted on paper

Dimensions:

plate (trimmed; approx.): 23 5/8 × 17 9/16" (60 × 44.6 cm); mount: 35 × 24" (88.9 × 61 cm)

Signature:

"Louise Bourgeois" lower right margin, pencil.

Publisher:

Osiris, New York

Printer:

Wingate Studio, Hinsdale, NH

Edition:

3; plus an edition of 3 with black hand additions, and an edition of 7 with multicolor hand additions, and an illustrated book edition of 12

Impression:

"1/3" lower left margin, pencil, artist's hand.

Edition Information:

For this edition of 3, the plate was printed in red ink.

This composition was issued as a published edition once at version 1, state VI, and four times at version 2, only state.

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.)

The second and third editions of version 2 were printed in black and red ink, respectively. Each was an edition of 3 impressions and include subtle hand additions.

Also, a separate edition of this composition was published in an illustrated book titled, "One's Sleep." The illustrated book includes 18 plates with hand additions, in all. (See Evolving Composition Diagram.)

State Changes and Additions:

Changes from version 1: composition mirrored, enlarged, and partially transferred to a new plate, in soft ground etching.

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 sheet for this composition has been trimmed down to the plate mark and mounted on a board.

The plate dimensions and paper type 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