Cat. No. 389b

Untitled, no. 9 of 23, from the illustrated book, Ode à la Bièvre

Date:: 2007
Illustrated Book:: Ode à la Bièvre

Themes: Abstraction, Fabric Works, Nature
Techniques: Digital
Support:: Fabric
Dimensions:: page: 11 x 15 9/16" (28 x 39.5 cm)
Signature:: "Louise Bourgeois" lower center colophon, black ink. "Louise Bourgeois" right lower colophon, printed in blue screenprint on white patch.
Publisher: Zucker Art Books
Printer: Dyenamix
Edition:: 14; plus 3 A.P.
Edition Information:: This editioned illustrated book (2007) is based on a unique version of the same title (2002).

A trade edition of “Ode à la Bièvre” was also published in 2007 by Zucker Art Books, New York. It was issued in an edition of 1,800, with a Special Edition of 95 copies numbered 1-95 and 25 A.P.s numbered I-XXV. The Special Edition includes two photographs from Louise Bourgeois's archive titled: “The garden in Antony, 1920” and “The Bièvre river, 1951”. The photographs were digitally printed by Factum Arte on smooth, wove Verona paper. The photos were trimmed and mounted on smooth, wove Rives sheets measuring 14 9/16 x 10 1/4" (37 x 26 cm). The sheets were embossed to create the illusion of a platemark around the photos. The titles were printed in letterpress in blue ink in the lower middle margin of each sheet.

A.P. XXV/XXV is in the MoMA Collection (Accession Number: 1072.2014.1-2). The artist initialed each photo in pencil in the lower right margin, and the impression number was written in pencil in the lower left margin in an unknown hand. Bourgeois signed her full name in black ink on the colophon.
Impression:: "AP 2" center colophon, black ink, unknown hand.
Background:: Bourgeois created the 2002 fabric illustrated book, "Ode à la Bièvre," as a remembrance for the Bièvre River in Antony, an area outside of Paris. The Bourgeois family moved to Antony after World War I, and the artist spent her childhood years there. They chose this location for its proximity to the river, which contained tannin, an important ingredient in the setting of tapestry dyes for the family’s tapestry restoration business. The Bièvre River cut across the backyard of the property, which was beautifully planted by Bourgeois’s mother and father. In the early 1950s, the Bièvre was filled in. The artist’s relationship to the river and its surrounding gardens is the story behind the fabric book, "Ode à la Bièvre." In 2007 Bourgeois created this editioned version of the unique 2002 book.
Curatorial Remarks:: To replicate the fabric collages in the 2002 unique version of "Ode à la Bièvre," each page was scanned and digitally printed on fabric for this 2007 editioned version. Most compositions are printed on one sheet of fabric per page, but compositions no. 5, 8, 10, 11, 14, 16, 17, and 21 are comprised of digital prints on fabrics stitched together.

Bourgeois included images of the Bièvre River in her 1999 project for the periodical "Point d'Ironie." The periodical also has one page of text, which Bourgeois later used on the last page of "Ode à la Bièvre." "Point d'Ironie" is a periodical published by agnès b and Hans-Ulrich Obrist, with each issue designed by an individual artist and consisting of eight pages, folded in a standard format.

The second word in the title of this book should have an accent. An accent has been included in the cataloguing information.
Descriptive Title:: English translation: "Ode to the Bièvre"
Description:: Digital print
Housing:: Detachable snap and buttonhole binding. Publisher's clamshell box: cream linen with embossed title.
MoMA Credit Line:: Gift of the artist
MoMA Accession Number:: 337.2009.10
This Work in Other Collections:: Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
Tate Modern, London

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Untitled, no. 9 of 23, from the illustrated book, Ode à la Bièvre

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