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

No. 1:
a symbolic act
that took place
many years ago
in a supposedly healthy environment.
You could see that in the family
environment, things are
supposed to be healthy,
but they are usually
very very upsetting.

No. 2:
It was a foundry
and I was simply a
visitor there.

and there was silence.
there was silence,
the silence of a workshop
where people are concentrating
on what they are doing

No. 3:
and suddenly
there was a clash
of voices.

No. 4:
it was the voice of a woman
a woman who attacked
her husband with a
violence that made you
instantly and suddenly
perceive chaos
you see, the chaos
brought about by
people who fight

No. 5:
seen from the point of view
of a child. a child of 12 or 14,
he was on vacation from school

and you could see suddenly the change
of expression on his face, the expression of terror
the terror of perceiving chaos, as I said.

No. 6:
and the parents went on
fighting like cats and dogs.
awful, awful, awful
nobody could do anything
about it
they have to run their
course. you know, parents
fighting. they have to fight

No. 7:
and of course, the child
did not die, he did not
die. he did not scream.
he did not let go of his
body function.
he did not disintegrate

No. 8:
he kept alive
and he went over
to the closet and
brought back a
broom
and he started cleaning
at that point something
broke inside of me
and I started crying
and you know, I never cry
something broke inside

No. 9:
it was the controlling
of chaos by one of us

No. 10:
this child was 14
and he was pretty strong
and I am not 14 any more
I still sometimes feel
that chaos surging
up on me and
it is very difficult
to control

No. 11:
at that point you operate
a symbolic action.
and in my case you begin
to work on the sculpture

No. 12:
the symbolic action
can take many many
forms. Some people will
become perfectionists in
whatever they are doing
or they can write
they can write a story
or they can work on
the house

No. 13:
there are many symbolic actions
of course, the different qualities
are everything.

No. 14:
we are talking about sublimation
and the gift of sublimation

No. 15:
I feel that if we are able
to sublimate, in any way we do,
that we should feel thankful.
I cannot talk about any other
profession, but the artist is
blessed with this power.