Ode à Ma Mère
Bourgeois, Louise
Paris. Editions du Solstice. 1995
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Louise Bourgeois' extraordinary artist book of her own verse and her own engravings.
From the edition limited to 125 copies signed and numbered by Bourgeois in pencil, with this one of 90 copies 'pour les sociétaires' with all of the drypoints numbered and initialled by Bourgeois in pencil; 35 hors commerce examples numbered in Roman numerals were also issued.
All of Bourgeois' engravings feature the motif of the spider: apparently different species of spiders engaged in different arachnid acts of spinning, climbing, making webs, hunting, or even in the final etching, seeming to give birth, albeit a human-headed spider to a human-headed baby. The accompanying verse - Bourgeois writes in a stream-of-consciousness patois of English and French - delineate and underline the themes of her oeuvre that have now become well-known. She writes in a clamorous tumult of different voices that seem to compete in different languages and tones, calling and responding, questioning and answering. Her words are of spiders, of her mother, of loss, remorse, anxiety, weaving, fear, joy and memory, regret and uncertainty, the effect a powerful complement to her images, the result a powerful tour de force and an extraordinary artist book.
'Mes arraignées sont une ode à ma mère.' (Louise Bourgeois in the text).
'Louise Bourgeois first represented the spider in a drawing she made in 1947. In the 1990s the spider became a serious theme within her work, culminating in the large-scale bronze sculpture Maman 1999 (Tate T12625). Spiders are often referenced within myth, fairytales and nursery rhymes and are known for their slightly menacing characteristics. Yet for Bourgeois, there is always a connection with her own mother, who died when she was relatively young and who was a needlewoman involved in the family business of tapestry restoration and hence metonymically linked with the spinning and weaving, industrious spider. Bourgeois felt abandoned following her mother’s death and never fully came to terms with her loss.' (Ann Coxon)
This nominatif copy, one of 90 destined for the 'sociétaires', was printed for Michel L'Hopitault. Bourgeois' engravings were printed at Harlan & Weaver Intaglio and the text was printed at l'Imprimerie PIUF.
[MoMA 4a - 12a; see Ann Coxon's 'Collection Text' for 'Ode à la Mère' at Tate online].
From the edition limited to 125 copies signed and numbered by Bourgeois in pencil, with this one of 90 copies 'pour les sociétaires' with all of the drypoints numbered and initialled by Bourgeois in pencil; 35 hors commerce examples numbered in Roman numerals were also issued.
All of Bourgeois' engravings feature the motif of the spider: apparently different species of spiders engaged in different arachnid acts of spinning, climbing, making webs, hunting, or even in the final etching, seeming to give birth, albeit a human-headed spider to a human-headed baby. The accompanying verse - Bourgeois writes in a stream-of-consciousness patois of English and French - delineate and underline the themes of her oeuvre that have now become well-known. She writes in a clamorous tumult of different voices that seem to compete in different languages and tones, calling and responding, questioning and answering. Her words are of spiders, of her mother, of loss, remorse, anxiety, weaving, fear, joy and memory, regret and uncertainty, the effect a powerful complement to her images, the result a powerful tour de force and an extraordinary artist book.
'Mes arraignées sont une ode à ma mère.' (Louise Bourgeois in the text).
'Louise Bourgeois first represented the spider in a drawing she made in 1947. In the 1990s the spider became a serious theme within her work, culminating in the large-scale bronze sculpture Maman 1999 (Tate T12625). Spiders are often referenced within myth, fairytales and nursery rhymes and are known for their slightly menacing characteristics. Yet for Bourgeois, there is always a connection with her own mother, who died when she was relatively young and who was a needlewoman involved in the family business of tapestry restoration and hence metonymically linked with the spinning and weaving, industrious spider. Bourgeois felt abandoned following her mother’s death and never fully came to terms with her loss.' (Ann Coxon)
This nominatif copy, one of 90 destined for the 'sociétaires', was printed for Michel L'Hopitault. Bourgeois' engravings were printed at Harlan & Weaver Intaglio and the text was printed at l'Imprimerie PIUF.
[MoMA 4a - 12a; see Ann Coxon's 'Collection Text' for 'Ode à la Mère' at Tate online].
[11 bifolia + 9 leaves with engravings = 31 leaves including blanks]. Square folio. (312 x 312 mm). Half-title, leaf with original drypoint engraving by Bourgeois as frontispiece, title and Bourgeois' bilingual verse 'Ode à Ma Mère' in English and French illustrated with 8 further drypoints, final leaf with justification and achevé d'imprimer; all of Bourgeois' engravings, drypoint or drypoint with roulette, or drypoint with monotype and embossing, printed on single sheets and retaining deckle edges, are numbered from the edition of 90 at lower left and initialled 'LB' at lower right in pen Loose as issued in original publisher's plain cream wrappers, original coarse-weave cloth chemise with title to spine in black and matching slipcase by Atelier Bernard Duval.
#48735
