LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Author:

The artist

Themes:

Fabric Works, Music, Objects, Words

Techniques:

Digital

Description:

Digital print

Support:

Fabric

Dimensions:

composition: 13 7/8 x 23 15/16" (35.3 x 60.8 cm); sheet: 17 1/2 x 26 15/16" (44.5 x 68.5 cm)

Signature:

"LB" lower right of cover, stitched in red thread. "Louise Bourgeois" center of colophon, black ink. "Louise Bourgeois" lower right margin of no. 25, black ink.

Publisher:

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

Printer:

Dyenamix, New York

Edition:

7; plus 2 A.P., and an illustrated book version with an edition of 15 with 3 A.P.

Impression:

"3/7" center of colophon, black ink, unknown hand.

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.

The background of the composition 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. According to her assistant, Jerry Gorovoy, she returned to music paper as a drawing surface in 1994-95, at the time of her "Insomnia Drawings" series, when she listened to music during the night.

Installation Remarks:

This composition is one of twenty-five that constitute a single work of art. All of these compositions are to be exhibited together and in the indicated sequence.

Curatorial Remarks:

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

The cover and each two-page spread of the illustrated book have corresponding sheets in the portfolio. However, 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.

Author Information:

The text comes 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:

1351.2009.13

This Work in Other Collections:

Tate Modern, London

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY