Cat. No. 983
Landscape, plate 18 of 18, from the illustrated book, One's Sleep (3)
- State/Variant:
- Only state
- Date:
- 2003
- Illustrated Book:
- One's Sleep (3)
- Alternate Title:
- The Window is Open
- Themes
- Nature
- Techniques
- Etching
- Support:
- Handmade Dieu Donné paper
- Dimensions:
- page: 38 1/2 × 28 5/8" (97.8 × 72.7 cm)
- Signature:
- "Louise Bourgeois" upper center sheet, page 3, pencil; "Louise Bourgeois" lower center sheet, page 40, pencil.
- Publisher
- Osiris
- Printer
- Wingate Studio
- Printer of Text
- Wild Carrot Letterpress
- Edition:
- 12 (see Edition Information); plus an edition of 5 individual impressions with hand additions
- Edition Information:
- Documentation was available from the Louise Bourgeois Studio for 2 bound examples of “One’s Sleep”: numbers 1 and 3. No documentation is available for the other bound or unbound examples, as of 2016 cataloguing.
The colophons found in books 1 and 3 differ with regard to Edition and Publisher.
Book 1:
Edition: “Ten bound books / Two unbound folio sets”
Publisher: “Designed and published by Benjamin Shiff”
Book 3:
Edition: “Nine bound books / Three unbound folio sets”
(Publisher’s notes, not included on the colophon, numbers the books 1-9 and I-III)
Publisher: “Published by Osiris”
The pagination in books 1 and 3 differ in that book 1 includes an additional blank spread before pp. 9-10 (with plates 1 and 2). Otherwise, the plates used and the order in which they appear is consistent in each. (See individual books)
Hand additions to the plates in books 1 and 3 vary considerably.
In the edition of 5 individual impressions with hand additions, each is designated by the artist as a "study." (Usually in this catalogue, the term “study” describes photocopies and tracings that were used in the process of developing a composition.) - Impression:
- "#3" lower center p. 40, pencil, artist's hand.
- Curatorial Remarks:
- The medium of the hand additions and type of paper could not be documented because this impression is not in MoMA's Collection and could not be examined in person.
- Description:
- Etching, with hand additions
- Pagination:
- Pages 37 and 38 of 41.
Only state
2003
Landscape
2003-2004
Source
2003
Landscape
2003
Landscape
2003
Medium: Watercolor, gouache, and pencil
Dimensions: sheet: 37 × 27" (94 × 68.6 cm)
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY
Related Works in the Catalogue
Related Works in Other Mediums
Untitled
2004
Untitled
2004
Medium: Watercolor and ink on paper
Dimensions: sheet: 11 1/2 x 9" (29.2 x 22.9 cm)
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY
Blue Days
2004
Blue Days
2004
Medium: Watercolor and gouache on paper
Dimensions: sheet: 11 1/2 x 9" (29.2 x 22.9 cm)
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY
The Sweet Smell of Indigo
1968
The Sweet Smell of Indigo
1968
Medium: Watercolor, charcoal, and gouache on paper
Dimensions: sheet: 19 1/4 x 25" (48.9 x 63.5 cm)
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY
Partial Recall
1979
Partial Recall
1979
Medium: Painted wood
Dimensions: overall: 108 x 90 x 66" (274.3 x 228.6 x 167.6 cm)
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY
Cumuls
1970
Cumuls
1970
Medium: Watercolor and charcoal on paper
Dimensions: 22 × 28 3/4" (55.9 × 73 cm)
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY
Untitled
2004
Untitled
2004
Medium: Watercolor and pencil
Dimensions: sheet: 29 1/8 × 22 1/4" (74 × 56.5 cm)
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY
Cumul I
1969
Cumul I
1969
Medium: Marble
Dimensions: overall: 22 3/8 × 50 × 48" (56.8 × 127 × 121.9 cm)
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY
My Blue Sky
1989-2003
My Blue Sky
1989-2003
Medium: Gouache, watercolor, ink, pencil, colored pencil and paper mounted into a wood and glass window frame
Dimensions: overall: 28 × 23 × 6 1/4" (71.1 × 58.4 × 15.9 cm)
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY
Louise Bourgeois,
One's Sleep,
2003Bourgeois's entire printed text for this volume appears on the pages cited below. The text is consistent throughout the documented books, although the page numbers vary slightly.
Cover:
One's Sleep [artist’s hand]
Text 1:
LOUISE BOURGEOIS
Text 2:
one's sleep
Text 3 (with plate 1):
The blue fear.
Text 4 (with plate 2):
The pink fear.
Text 5:
I need sleep.
Text 6 (with plate 3):
The comfort object, always present,
Text 7 (with plate 4):
the color blue,
the child.
the circling of children.
Text 8 (with plate 5):
I need sleep.
Text 9 (with plate 6):
To listen to the breathing, to my stomach,
to my intestines. I want to listen to them,
to expose them, to think about them,
to welcome them, to wait for them,
to take care of them, like a good rested mother.
Text 10 (with plate 7 and 8):
Sleep to reach peace, the restoration of silence and of peace.
The defenses are worthless, they do not exist. Kindliness,
healthy breathing, forgetting and forgiving, to let go.
Text 11:
Leniency and charity are necessary for the arrival of sleep.
I want to give, to exude, to give to give, to exude.
Text 12 (with plate 9):
My sleep is disturbed. The house of fear. Apprehension.
I fear the future, but I am also afraid of the past.
Yes even the past, but also the present.
I am afraid of others, but mostly of myself.
Text 13 (with plate 10):
The fear to waste one's time,
the fear to waste one's luck,
the fear of the past;
nostalgia.
The fear of the present,
the fear to love,
the fear of the future;
apprehension.
Text 14 (with plate 11):
The ransom, the cost, the effect of fear on others.
The fear that does not know itself.
Unaware and aware.
Text 15 (with plate 12 and 13):
The underground life of fear, what it becomes.
Text 16 (with plate 14):
The fear and the sugar, the adrenaline.
To have the energy and persistence to replace fear by trust.
Text 17 (with plate 15):
I'm going to wait until my breathing goes down and gets regularized, to yawn,
Text 18 (with plate 16):
to do one's nails, to comb the hair, to mend, to draw, to write one's journal.
Text 19 (with plate 17):
One's sleep.
Text 20:
To lose one's way,
to lose one's friend,
to lose one's breath.
Text 21:
To love.
Text 22 (with plate 18):
Leave the house of fear, the window is open.