LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Author:

The artist

Themes:

Fabric Works, Music, Objects, Words

Techniques:

Digital

Description:

Fabric illustrated book with 25 digital prints (including cover)

Dimensions:

page (each): 13 x 9" (33 x 22.8 cm); overall: 13 x 10 5/8 x 2 3/16" (33 x 27 x 5.5 cm)

Signature:

"LB" lower right front of cover, stitched in red thread. "Louise Bourgeois" lower center of colophon, black ink.

Publisher:

Carolina Nitsch Editions, New York,
Lison Editions, New York (Louise Bourgeois)

Printer:

Dyenamix, New York

Edition:

15; plus 3 A.P., 1 P.P., and a portfolio version with an edition of 7 with 2 A.P.

Impression:

"6/15" lower center of colophon, black ink, unknown hand.

Pagination:

49 unnumbered pages, including the colophon.

Housing:

Bound. Clamshell box.

Background:

Lison Editions is a name Bourgeois adopted when she published works herself, late in her life. "Lison" is a nickname she had as a child. The full list of her nicknames is: Lise, Lison, Lisette, Louison, Louisette.

Bourgeois's assistant, Jerry Gorovoy, provided the following information: The cover pattern for "Hours of the Day" derives from a garment Bourgeois owned--a scarf or a blouse, while the change from light to dark is a digitally printed effect. The background of the pages is printed to resemble music paper, which Bourgeois favored for drawings and can be found in her work as far back as the early 1940s. She returned to it as a drawing surface in 1994-95, at the time of her "Insomnia Drawings" series, when she listened to music during the night.

Curatorial Remarks:

Dimensions:
The illustrated book version of "Hours of the Day" preceded the portfolio version. The portfolio is considerably larger than the illustrated book.

Page dimensions vary slightly because of hemming and stretching fluctuations.

Formats:
The cover and each two-page spread of the illustrated book have corresponding sheets in the portfolio. The cover images of the illustrated book and portfolio are similar, however, the image on the cover of the illustrated book continues onto its verso and the facing page (constituting the "endpapers"). Also, in the spreads of the illustrated book, the compositions are divided into two sections to accommodate the gutter.

The illustrated book and portfolio were created independently using separate digital files; therefore, minor differences occur between the texts.

Author Information:

The texts come from Bourgeois's daybooks, which she kept for each year up until the very last years of her life. She used them for appointments, and also annotated them with short texts and drawings.

MoMA Credit Line:

Gift of the artist

MoMA Accession Number:

332.2009.1-25

This Work in Other Collections:

Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
Tate Modern, London

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY