What Why When Where Who and How!!

Cat. No. 1255

What Why When Where Who and How!!

Date:
2008

Themes
Abstraction, Body Parts, Fabric Works, Figures
Techniques
Etching
Support:
See individual.
Dimensions:
Plate and sheet sizes vary. See individual.
Signature:
See individual.
Publisher
Osiris
Printer
Wingate Studio
Edition:
Unique
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 hand additions and paper type on individual sheets throughout the series 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 impressions in MoMA's Collection. The overall mediums and sheet dimensions for the series were provided by the Louise Bourgeois Studio.
Description:
Series of 4 compositions: 9 soft ground etchings, with watercolor, gouache, ink, colored pencil, and pencil additions
Installation Remarks:
This series of 4 compositions constitutes a single work of art. All of these compositions are to be exhibited together in the indicated sequence.
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY

From the series

Untitled, no. 1 of 4, from the series, What Why When Where Who and How!!
Untitled, no. 2 of 4, from the series, What Why When Where Who and How!!
Untitled, no. 3 of 4, from the series, What Why When Where Who and How!!
Untitled, no. 4 of 4, from the series, What Why When Where Who and How!!
Publication Excerpts

Louise Bourgeois,

What Why When Where Who and How!!,

New York, Osiris, 2008

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

No. 1:
what
why
when
where
who
and how!
A
story
by
Louise Bourgeois

No. 2:
What is it you want?
Do you know what it is?
Is it possible?
?
why not?

No. 3:
love
love
what I love
love
what I love most
what I love
I love love
Are you looking for a
substitute?
?
?
?
of love
of rejection
of anger
of depression
of optimism
of abundance
of silence

No. 4:
my
need
to repair
is
a plea
for a second chance
I have come of age