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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. 1248

Inner Truths or Outer Truths

Date:
2007
Themes:
Abstraction, Fabric Works, Nature, Objects
Techniques:
Etching
Description:
Series of 4 compositions: 13 soft ground etchings, with watercolor, gouache, ink, colored pencil, and pencil additions
Support:
See individual.
Dimensions:
Plate and sheet sizes vary. See individual.
Signature:
See individual.
Publisher:
Osiris, New York
Printer:
Wingate Studio, Hinsdale, NH
Edition:
Unique
Impression:
Not numbered
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.
Installation Remarks:
This series of 4 compositions constitutes a single work of art. All of these compositions are to be exhibited together in the indicated sequence.
Curatorial Remarks:
The hand additions and paper type on individual sheets throughout the series 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 impressions in MoMA's Collection. The overall mediums and sheet dimensions for the series were provided by the Louise Bourgeois Studio.

From the series

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  • NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Louise Bourgeois. Untitled, no. 1 of 4, from the series, Inner Truths or Outer Truths. 2007
    Untitled, no. 1 of 4, from the...
    Unique variant
    2007
    Louise Bourgeois. Untitled, no. 1 of 4, from the series, Inner Truths or Outer Truths. 2007
  • NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Louise Bourgeois. Untitled, no. 2 of 4, from the series, Inner Truths or Outer Truths. 2007
    Untitled, no. 2 of 4, from the...
    Unique variant
    2007
    Louise Bourgeois. Untitled, no. 2 of 4, from the series, Inner Truths or Outer Truths. 2007
  • NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Louise Bourgeois. Untitled, no. 3 of 4, from the series, Inner Truths or Outer Truths. 2007
    Untitled, no. 3 of 4, from the...
    State I of II, unique variant
    2007
    Louise Bourgeois. Untitled, no. 3 of 4, from the series, Inner Truths or Outer Truths. 2007
  • NOT IN MoMA'S COLLECTION Louise Bourgeois. Untitled, no. 4 of 4, from the series, Inner Truths or Outer Truths. 2007
    Untitled, no. 4 of 4, from the...
    Unique variant
    2007
    Louise Bourgeois. Untitled, no. 4 of 4, from the series, Inner Truths or Outer Truths. 2007

Louise Bourgeois,

Inner Truths or Outer Truths,

New York, Osiris, 2007

Bourgeois's entire text for this series appears on the panels cited below.

No. 1:
inner
truths
or
outer truths

No. 2:
the move forward
and
outward
to grow
over
and cover
to protect
to embrace
to cherish
is
desire
to move towards
to take hold of
to grasp
to grow
to love

No. 3:
the talker
who
is
+ secretive
the
satisfaction
of
a
job well done!!!

No. 4:
I give
things eternity
I
have come
of
age