Untitled, no. 1 of 5, from the series, When Did This Happen?

Cat. No. 916, unique variant 1, in 918

Untitled, no. 1 of 5, from the series, When Did This Happen?

State/Variant:
Only state, unique variant
Date:
2007
Series:
When Did This Happen?
Alternate Title:
Just Like Me
Themes
Abstraction, Body Parts, Figures
Techniques
Etching
Support:
Paper (2 attached sheets)
Dimensions:
plate: 59 3/8 × 21 1/2" (150.8 × 54.6 cm); sheet (overall): 59 3/4 × 53 1/2" (151.8 × 135.9 cm)
Signature:
panel (a): "LB" lower right comp., pencil.
Publisher
Osiris
Printer
Wingate Studio
Edition:
Unique
Edition Information:
This is one of 2 unique variants outside the edition that incorporate this plate. Both are part of series and are seen in the Evolving Composition Diagram below.

About the "Just Like Me" edition:
Within the edition, sheet size varies from impression to impression. There is 1 known impression of the only state, outside the edition. It is inscribed "first proof" in the lower left composition by the artist, and signed "Louise Bourgeois" in the lower right composition, both in pencil. There are 2 known cancellation proofs, each with a large "X" drawn across the composition from each corner of the plate.
Impression:
Not numbered
Background:
Benjamin Shiff, the director of the Osiris imprint, collaborated with Bourgeois in a highly experimental phase of printmaking that occupied the last years of her life, from 2005 to 2010. He first established a working relationship with the artist in the 1990s, but the late period is particularly noteworthy for the innovative and complex large-scale projects that evolved at that time. Shiff made use of professional workshops for printing, but he oversaw the creation of the printing plates as Bourgeois worked on them in her home studio. He also provided assistance as she added extensive hand additions and texts, and as she combined individual compositions into multi-panel works and illustrated books.
Curatorial Remarks:
The mediums of the hand additions and paper type could not be documented because this work is not in MoMA's Collection and could not be examined in person. The plate dimensions are from the impression in MoMA's Collection. The overall sheet dimensions were provided by the Louise Bourgeois Studio.
Description:
panel (a): Soft ground etching, with hand additions
panel (b): Pencil
Installation Remarks:
This panel is one of 5 which constitute a single work of art. All of these panels are to be exhibited together in the indicated sequence.
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY

Just Like Me

2007-2009

States
Just Like Me
Unique Variants
Untitled, no. 1 of 5, from the series, When Did This Happen?
Untitled, no. 3 of 3, from the series, Sainte Nitouche

Series

2007

When Did This Happen?

Series

2009

Sainte Nitouche

Related Works in the Catalogue

The Twist
La Nausée, plate 1 of 7, from the portfolio, La Réparation
La Nausée, plate 22 of 24, from the series, Self Portrait
Abandoned

Related Works in Other Mediums

Untitled
Untitled
The Fish (Marinated) Was Delicious
Untitled
Untitled (recto)
Publication Excerpts

Louise Bourgeois,

When Did This Happen?,

New York, Osiris, 2007

Bourgeois's entire text for this series appears on the panels cited below.

No. 1:
Struck by utter
Revulsion
(I do nothing)
paralyzed.
immobilized by the horror

No. 2:
thunder struck
Freeze on the spot
go totally vague

No. 3:
when did this happen?
when I saw them coupling
separate the two snails
my memory is moth eaten
full of holes

No. 4:
something atrocious must have
happened that I don't
understand
and makes me masochistic

No. 5:
when terror pounces
grips me
I create an image