Plate 8 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition

Cat. No. 996.4

Plate 8 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition

State/Variant:
Version 4 of 5, only state
Date:
1995
Alternate Title:
The Prisoner; Ghost Ladders; Ghosts
Themes
Architecture, Objects
Techniques
Drypoint, Etching
Support:
Smooth, wove paper
Dimensions:
plate: 7 1/16 × 5 3/16" (17.9 × 13.2 cm); sheet: 13 15/16 × 11 1/4" (35.4 × 28.6 cm)
Signature:
Not signed
Publisher
unpublished
Printer
Harlan & Weaver
Edition:
2 known impressions of version 4, only state
Edition Information:
Proof before the editioning of version 5, state III in the second edition.

There is an additional known impression of this state in MoMA's Collection (Accession Number: 1354.2008). It is not illustrated due to its similarity to the impression seen here.
Impression:
Not numbered
Background:
Bourgeois issued the first edition of “He Disappeared into Complete Silence” in 1947. (See cat. no. 1228.) At that time, while actively working in printmaking at the Atelier 17 workshop, she decided to create an illustrated book edition with hopes of making her work more widely known. As it turned out, the book was not a success and Bourgeois never completed the announced edition of 54 examples. It frustrated her that she had never finished the project and, much later, in the early 1980s, she began efforts to reissue the book.

Bourgeois could not locate the printing plates for the nine illustrations, so she set about producing new ones. She worked first, in 1984, with printer Deli Sacilotto, of Iris Editions, New York, to create photogravures using 1947 impressions of Plates 1, 3, and the “Alternative Plate.” Then, in 1990, she created engraved versions of Plates 2 and 6 with the assistance of Christian Guérin of Gravure, New York. First, though, in order to determine whether Guérin’s engraving was suitable, she asked him to engrave two similar compositions. (See “Atlantic Avenue: Transparent Houses” [cat. nos. 1054.1, .2, .3].)

In 1993, Bourgeois finally turned the project over to printer Felix Harlan of Harlan & Weaver, New York, with whom she had begun to work on a regular basis. Harlan would ultimately serve as both printer and coordinator of the second edition. He started out by making reprints of some of the 1983 photogravures created with Sacilotto, and the 1990 engravings created with Guérin. In addition, since by then Bourgeois had located three of the original printing plates from the 1940s (two versions of Plate 3 and one version of Plate 4), Harlan made reprints from those, but they were too distressed for use in a future edition. He also attempted to remake Plates 5, 8, and 9 in drypoint and/or etching. Finally, Bourgeois decided to work with photogravure as the starting-off point for all the compositions in the book, in order to keep the plates as close as possible to those of the 1947 edition. In 1995, new photogravure plates were made by Renaissance Press from photographs of the first edition in the New York Public Library (cat. no. 1228, Example 12). Working with Harlan, Bourgeois ultimately re-worked these photogravure plates with engraving, also adding aquatint, drypoint, scorper and watercolor additions in some instances.

The 1947 first edition of “He Disappeared into Complete Silence” includes “vintage” examples issued in 1947 or thereabouts, as well as “assembled” examples that Bourgeois compiled in the 1980s from prints and texts that remained in her possession. Some of the “assembled” examples, including the one in the New York Public Library, have ten plates rather than the standard nine plates. The tenth plate is a composition called “Alternative Plate” for cataloguing purposes. The second edition includes this “Alternative Plate,” as well as an entirely new eleventh plate titled, “Spider.”

Bourgeois worked intermittently on this project for over a decade, with the second edition appearing in 2005 as a benefit publication for the Department of Prints and Illustrated Books, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. In addition to eleven plates, the book includes text pages from 1947 that had remained with Bourgeois, as well as a new table of contents, foreword, and colophon. The housing was constructed to match that of the 1947 first edition.
Description:
Drypoint and etching
State Changes and Additions:
Changes from version 3: composition rendered on a new plate in drypoint and etching (see Background).
Artist’s Remarks:
The ladders are "very organized.... Attaching to the ceiling is a defense against losing one's balance on the ground." Bourgeois was "trying to express that one is not trapped, that it is not hopeless." She said, "This is a resolving of the trapping problem. The window shows that no one is locked in here. All the ladders could fit out." (Quote cited in Wye, Deborah and Carol Smith. "The Prints of Louise Bourgeois." New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1994, p. 92.)
MoMA Credit Line:
Gift of the artist
MoMA Accession Number:
1376.2012
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY

Plate 8, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence

1946-2005

First Version
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition
Second Version
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition
Third Version
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 18)
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition
Plate 7 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 13)
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 1)
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 2)
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 3)
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 4)
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 5)
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 6)
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 7)
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 8)
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 9)
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 10)
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 11)
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 12)
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 14)
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 15)
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 16)
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 17)
Plate 8 of 9, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition (Example 19)
Fourth Version
Plate 8 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition
Fifth Version
Plate 8 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition
Plate 8 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition
Plate 8 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition
Plate 8 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition
Plate 8 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition
Plate 8 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition
Plate 8 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition
Plate 8 of 11, from the illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition

Illustrated Book

1947

He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first edition

Illustrated Book

2005

He Disappeared into Complete Silence, second edition

Illustrated Book

1947

He Disappeared into Complete Silence, first and second editions

Related Works in the Catalogue

The Upward Journey
The Ladders
The Ladder of Success
Untitled, plate 2 of 8, from the illustrated book, the puritan

Related Works in Other Mediums

Untitled
Untitled
Ladder
Ladder
Seen from Above
Seen from Below
Untitled
He Disappeared into Complete Silence
He Disappeared Dessin Preparatory
Gemor Press