Ode à l'Oubli

Cat. No. 61a-95a

Ode à l'Oubli

Date:
2002
Themes
Abstraction, Fabric Works, Words
Techniques
Other Techniques
Dimensions:
page (each approx.): 10 3/4 × 12 1/16" (27.3 × 30.7 cm); overall: 11 7/16 × 12 13/16 × 1 15/16" (29 × 32.5 × 5 cm)
Signature:
"Louise Bourgeois" printed lower middle, inside back book cover, red lithograph.
Publisher
unpublished
Printer
SOLO Impression
Edition:
Unique
Edition Information:
There is an editioned version of this unique fabric illustrated book. It was published in 2004 in an edition of 25 plus 7 A.P., 6 P.P.
Impression:
Not numbered
Background:
"Ode à l'Oubli" was Bourgeois's first book of fabric collages, and it is unique. The pages were made of linen hand towels from the artist’s wedding trousseau. These towels are embroidered with the monogram “LBG” for “Louise Bourgeois Goldwater.” (Bourgeois married the American art historian Robert Goldwater in 1938.) To assemble the book, Bourgeois worked with Mercedes Katz, a seamstress she had employed starting in 1999. The fabric collages on each page are made from fragments of her old clothing and household items. SOLO Impression printed the lithographed cover and the two text pages within the volume. In 2004, Bourgeois issued an editioned version of "Ode à l'Oubli," published by Peter Blum Edition.
Descriptive Title:
English translation: "Ode to Forgetting"
Description:
Fabric illustrated book with 35 compositions: 32 fabric collages, 2 with ink additions, and 3 lithographs (including cover)
Pagination:
68 unnumbered pages.
Other Remarks:
Bourgeois's assistant, Jerry Gorovoy, remembers that a circumflex accent was mistakenly printed on the "A" on the cover and on the spine of the unique 2002 version of the book, and he is not sure how Bourgeois missed the error. When the cover for this editioned version was made in 2004, it was decided that the title looked best printed with all capital letters, with no accent, and with no italics.
Bibliography:
Wye, Deborah. "Louise Bourgeois (American, born France 1911)." In Cornelia Butler and Alexandra Schwartz, eds., "Modern Women: Women Artists at The Museum of Modern Art." New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2010, 274-277.

This article describes Bourgeois's relationship to fabric as a material for artworks, and the making of "Ode à l'Oubli."
MoMA Credit Line:
Gift of the artist
MoMA Accession Number:
540.2005.1-35
This Work in Other Collections:
Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY

From the illustrated book

Ode à l'Oubli, cover
Untitled, no. 1 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 2 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 3 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 4 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 5 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 6 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 7 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 8 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 9 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 10 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 11 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 12 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 13 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 14 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 15 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 16 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 17 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
I Had a Flashback of Something that Never Existed, no. 18 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 19 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 20 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 21 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 22 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 23 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 24 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 25 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 26 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 27 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
The Return of the Repressed, no. 28 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 29 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 30 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 31 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 32 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 33 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli
Untitled, no. 34 of 34, from the illustrated book, Ode à l'Oubli

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