LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Themes:

Figures, Spirals

Techniques:

Etching

Description:

Etching, with watercolor, crayon, and pencil additions

Support:

Paper

Dimensions:

plate: 6 × 6 5/8" (15.2 × 16.8 cm); sheet: 10 13/16 × 14 3/4" (27.5 × 37.5 cm)

Signature:

"Louise Bourgeois" right lower margin, pencil.

Publisher:

Osiris, New York

Printer:

Wingate Studio, Hinsdale, NH

Edition:

2 known impressions of version 1, only state

Impression:

Not numbered

Edition Information:

Version 1 of this composition was issued as "Spiral Woman I." Version 2 was issued as part of the illustrated book "Hang On," and in the edition "Spiral Woman II."

About the "Hang On" illustrated book edition:
There are varying hand additions across the edition of illustrated books. Impression number 5/9 was also available for examination by MoMA cataloguers, but was not available for reproduction. In that example, plate 2 has chine collé, and white and red gouache, red pencil, and pencil additions.

About the "Spiral Woman II" edition:
The hand additions and orientation vary across the edition. For comparison, see multiple impressions in the Evolving Composition Diagram below. Bourgeois and the publisher designated each impression in this edition as a study. (Usually in this catalogue, the term study describes photocopies and tracings that were used in the process of developing a composition.)

Curatorial Remarks:

The color of the hand additions and paper type could not be fully documented because this work is not in MoMA's Collection and could not be examined in person.

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Print Committee, 2006.60a-b
Digital Image © Whitney Museum, N.Y.
© 2019 The Easton Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, NY