Toi et Moi (Sleeping Figure and Swaying), plates 3 and 4 of 18 (diptych), from the illustrated book, One's Sleep (1)

Cat. No. 1016 in 981A

Toi et Moi (Sleeping Figure and Swaying), plates 3 and 4 of 18 (diptych), from the illustrated book, One's Sleep (1)

State/Variant:
Only state
Date:
2003
Illustrated Book:
One's Sleep (1)
Themes
Figures, Nature
Techniques
Etching
Support:
Handmade Dieu Donné paper
Dimensions:
plate (each): 15 7/8 × 2 15/16" (40.4 × 7.4 cm); page (each): 38 1/2 × 28 5/8" (97.8 × 72.7 cm)
Signature:
"Louise Bourgeois" lower center sheet, page 42, pencil.
Publisher
Osiris
Printer
Wingate Studio
Printer of Text
Wild Carrot Letterpress
Edition:
12 (see Edition Information); plus an edition of 6 with slight or no hand additions, and an edition of 9 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 9 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.)

The edition of 6 impressions includes subtle hand additions on two of the six impressions. Furthermore, two of the six diptych impressions are mounted on one panel per diptych, as opposed to 2 panels per diptych.
Impression:
"1/10" lower center p. 42, pencil, artist's hand (artist's numbering refers to bound books as noted on the colophon).
Background:
This composition was initially developed in 1989 in conjunction with Benjamin Shiff, director of Osiris, as a preliminary trial for the book project "the puritan" (see below in Related Works in the Catalogue) although it did not ultimately appear in that book. Bourgeois and Shiff returned to the composition in 2003, creating impressions with hand additions, and also impressions for inclusion in the book, “One’s Sleep”.
Curatorial Remarks:
The plate dimensions and hand additions could not be documented because this impression is not in MoMA's Collection and could not be examined in person. The plate dimensions are from the impressions in MoMA’s Collection. The sheet dimensions were provided by the Louise Bourgeois Studio.
Descriptive Title:
English translation: "You and Me"
Description:
Etching, with hand additions
Pagination:
Pages 13 and 14 of 43.
Artist’s Remarks:
In reference to the left plate: "This is reality... this is the everyday. The subject is trivial... they are just like little onions. But it gives pleasure to look at... it holds together. They relate harmoniously like seeds... they are an aggregate... like a society of members that holds together. The society can be self-supporting and independent.... This is about seeing coherence, poetry, and a satisfying quality on the everyday level."

In reference to the right plate: "Sleeping means retiring from the rat race. She has no eyes... there is a refusal to face up. It is an ego that wants to forget ambition and the miserable state of dealing with people... it is completely unsure of itself. There is a desperate effort to cope... it retires from the energy necessary for coping. But one has a right to retreat when one is hurting... to be in retreat is a time to recover... it is wonderful.

There is a self-sufficiency here... there is nothing demanding. This is a very modest view of things... it goes together with the seeds in 'Swaying' [left plate]. This takes its support from the base; the seeds in 'Swaying' take support from the ceiling." (Quotes cited in Wye, Deborah and Carol Smith. “The Prints of Louise Bourgeois.” New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1994, pp. 153-54.)
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY

Toi et Moi

1989-2003

Source

1947

Untitled

Source

1950

Sleeping Figure
States
Swaying and Sleeping Figure
Toi et Moi
Toi et Moi
Toi et Moi
Toi et Moi
Toi et Moi
Toi et Moi
Toi et Moi
Toi et Moi
Toi et Moi
Toi et Moi
Toi et Moi
Toi et Moi
Toi et Moi
Toi et Moi
Toi et Moi
Toi et Moi (Sleeping Figure and Swaying), plates 3 and 4 of 18 (diptych), from the illustrated book, One's Sleep (1)
Toi et Moi (Sleeping Figure and Swaying), plates 3 and 4 of 18 (diptych), from the illustrated book, One's Sleep (3)

Illustrated Book

2003

One's Sleep

Related Works in the Catalogue

Paddle Woman
the puritan
Pendule
The Fall
Toi et Moi
Swaying
Accumulations

Related Works in Other Mediums

Toi et Moi
Toi et Moi
Toi et Moi
Toi et Moi
Toi et Moi II
Toi et Moi III
Toi et Moi
Publication Excerpts

Louise Bourgeois,

One's Sleep,

2003

Bourgeois'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.