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LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Louise Bourgeois: Complete Books & Prints
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NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION

Cat. No. 770

Don't Swallow Me!

State/Variant:
Unique variant
Date:
2008
Themes:
Abstraction, Body Parts, Fabric Works
Techniques:
Etching
Description:
panel (a): Soft ground etching, with fabric collage and pencil additions
panel (b): Soft ground etching, with ink, gouache, and pencil additions
Support:
Paper (2 attached sheets) mounted on panel
Dimensions:
plate (a): 59 5/8 × 19 7/8" (151.5 × 50.5 cm); plate (b): 59 3/4 × 14 3/8" (151.8 × 36.5 cm); sheet (overall): 59 1/2 × 71" (151.1 × 180.3 cm) (plate dimensions reflect full plate size; these are partial printings)
Signature:
panel (b): "LB" lower right comp., black pencil.
Inscription:
panel (a): "Don't / swallow / me!" upper to center left sheet, pencil, artist's hand.
Publisher:
Osiris, New York
Printer:
Wingate Studio, Hinsdale, NH
Edition:
Unique
Impression:
Not numbered
State Changes and Additions:
Matrices:
This 2-panel composition is made up of plates that were issued as separate editions or used in other compositions. They are noted below and can be seen in Related Works in the Catalogue.

panel (a): plate from "Incognito."
For this unique variant, the plate is obscured by a fabric collage and is in a different orientation from the edition.

panel (b): plate from "Extreme Tension."
Background:
Benjamin Shiff, the director of the Osiris imprint, collaborated with Bourgeois in a highly experimental phase of printmaking that occupied the last years of her life, from 2005 to 2010. He first established a working relationship with the artist in the 1990s, but the late period is particularly noteworthy for the innovative and complex large-scale projects that evolved at that time. Shiff made use of professional workshops for printing, but he oversaw the creation of the printing plates as Bourgeois worked on them in her home studio. He also provided assistance as she added extensive hand additions and texts, and as she combined individual compositions into multi-panel works and illustrated books.
Curatorial Remarks:
The type of paper and color of the hand additions could not be documented because this work is not in MoMA's Collection and could not be examined in person. The plate dimensions are from the impressions of "Incognito" and "Extreme Tension" in MoMA’s Collection. The sheet dimensions were provided by the Louise Bourgeois Studio.

Don't Swallow Me!
2008

Unique Variants

Published NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Louise Bourgeois. Don't Swallow Me! 2008
NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Unique variant
2008