LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Themes:

Architecture

Techniques:

Etching

Description:

Etching, with chine collé

Support:

Smooth, wove paper

Dimensions:

plate: 11 7/8 x 8 13/16" (30.1 x 22.4 cm); sheet: 21 13/16 x 32 13/16" (55 x 83.3 cm)

Signature:

Not signed

Publisher:

unpublished

Printer:

Wingate Studio, Hinsdale, NH

Edition:

2 known impressions of version 1, state I

Impression:

Not numbered

Edition Information:

Proof before the editioning of version 2.

Background:

This composition was initially developed around 1989 in conjunction with Benjamin Shiff, director of Osiris, as a preliminary trial for the book project "the puritan" (see below in Related Works in the Catalogue) although it did not ultimately appear in that book. Bourgeois and Shiff returned to the composition in 2003, creating a second version to issue in an edition of 3, and to include in the book, “One’s Sleep".

Artist’s Remarks:

"There is a hinging of the landscape here that makes it both vertical and horizontal. There can be a change of mood... when it is up, it is very alert... when it is down it can be restful.

"But I would call it today the eternal road that goes nowhere... it is very empty... it is melancholy. It is like the long road from Paris to the south. We were on that road all the time to go south for my mother's health. It reminds me of Camus, who died on that road... he was young.

"The house is a museum, lycée, jail, or hospital. It is an institution, because that is the style in France... an architecture of a certain kind. This is the public life versus the private life. In other things you are a private person, here you become a citizen... you have to wait your turn... there are many people in front of you." (Quotes cited in Wye, Deborah and Carol Smith. "The Prints of Louise Bourgeois." New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1994, p. 154.)

Curatorial Remarks:

This composition is printed on a signature (a sheet that is folded once and comprises 4 pages). If the sheet is folded, the plate appears on page 3 of 4. The sheet is shown open here.

Former Cat. No.:

W & S 81

MoMA Credit Line:

Gift of the artist

MoMA Accession Number:

474.1993

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY