LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Alternate Title:

The Chain of Events

Themes:

Abstraction, Fabric Works, Spiders

Techniques:

Etching

Description:

panel (a): Pencil
panel (b): Soft ground etching
panel (c): Pencil

Support:

panel (a) and (c): Paper
panel (b): Fabric

Dimensions:

plate: 59 3/16 × 19 5/16" (150.3 × 49.1 cm); sheet: 60 1/2 × 77" (153.7 × 195.6 cm)

Signature:

panel (b): "LB" right lower margin, stitched in red thread.

Inscription:

panel (a): "waiting / waiting / waiting waiting / waiting / the spider waits / waits waits waits / the spider waits" center sheet, pencil, artist's hand.
panel (c): "she never gets tired of it / she waits and keeps waiting / nothing distracts her / she is still / she is eternal / she is / this lady is / invincible / breathing" center sheet, pencil, artist's hand.

Publisher:

Osiris, New York

Printer:

Wingate Studio, Hinsdale, NH

Edition:

Unique

Impression:

Not numbered

Edition Information:

This is one of 6 unique variants outside the edition that incorporate this plate, printed alone or in combination with other plates in multi-panel works. When the plate is printed alone, it is included in the Evolving Composition Diagram. When it is printed with other plates, it is included in Related Works in the Catalogue.

See Evolving Composition Diagram:
"The Spider Waits"
Untitled, no. 4 of 4, from the series, "What Why When Where Who and How!!"

See Related Works in the Catalogue:
Untitled, no. 1 of 4, from the series, "Inner Truths or Outer Truths"
Untitled, no. 2 of 3, from the series, "This Need"
"Time"
"Euphoria"

Within the edition, selective wiping and sheet size vary slightly from impression to impression.

There is 1 known impression of the only state, outside the edition. It is inscribed "first proof" in the lower left composition by the artist, and signed "Louise Bourgeois" in the lower right composition, both in pencil.

There are 2 known cancellation proofs on paper, each with a large "X" drawn across the composition from each corner of the plate.

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.

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY