Sophie Calle probes the boundaries between public and private life. In 1979 she began following people around Paris to give structure to her days. For The Sleepers, one of her earliest projects combining image and text, she shifted this practice of surveillance from the street to her bedroom. Over eight days, Calle invited 29 people—friends, acquaintances, and strangers—to sleep in her bed in consecutive eight-hour shifts, keeping it continuously occupied. When someone failed to arrive, Calle hired a bedsitter or filled the spot herself. She photographed the sleepers at regular intervals, took notes on their gestures and habits, and served meals and changed sheets. “I have an attraction, not to know somebody’s life,” she remarked, “but to know details, for example, which way he sleeps, on which side of the bed.”
Calle later expanded the project into an artist’s book, a format central to her practice. The French and English editions are presented in this gallery, along with a selection of her other books.
Organized by Lucy Gallun, Curator, The Robert B. Menschel Department of Photography, with Rachel Rosin, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Drawings and Prints and Curatorial Affairs, and Marina Molarsky-Beck, Beaumont & Nancy Newhall Curatorial Fellow, The Robert B. Menschel Department of Photography.
