Untitled, no. 2 of 3, from the series, Sainte Nitouche

Cat. No. 772, unique variant 2, in 1250

Untitled, no. 2 of 3, from the series, Sainte Nitouche

State/Variant:
Only state, unique variant
Date:
2009
Series:
Sainte Nitouche
Alternate Title:
My Secret Life
Themes
Abstraction, Fabric Works
Techniques
Etching
Support:
Paper
Dimensions:
plate (b and d) (each): 60 × 12" (152.4 × 30.5 cm) (dimensions reflect full plate size; these are partial prints); sheet (approx.): 59 3/4 × 110" (151.8 × 279.4 cm)
Signature:
panel (b): "Louise / Bourgeois" lower center comp., pencil.
panel (d): "Louise / Bourgeois" lower center comp., pencil.
Publisher
Osiris
Printer
Wingate Studio
Edition:
Unique
Edition Information:
This is one of 4 unique variants outside the edition to incorporate this plate, printed alone or in combination with another plate in multi-panel works. When the plate is used alone, the work is included in the Evolving Composition Diagram. When it is printed with another plate, it is included in Related Works in the Catalogue.

See Evolving Composition Diagram:
"My Secret Life"
Untitled, no. 2 of 3, from the series, "Sainte Nitouche"

See Related Works in the Catalogue:
Untitled, no. 5 of 5, from the series, "The Vocabulary of Seduction"
Untitled, no. 2 of 4, from the series, "What Why When Where Who and How!!"

About the "My Secret Life" edition:
There is 1 known variant impression outside the edition, and 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 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 an impression in MoMA's Collection. The overall mediums and sheet dimensions for the series were provided by the Louise Bourgeois Studio.

A "sainte nitouche" is a goody two-shoes.
Description:
panel (a): Pencil and fabric collage
panel (b): Soft ground etching, with hand additions
panel (c): Pencil
panel (d): Soft ground etching, with hand additions
panel (e): Pencil and fabric collage
Inscription:
panel (a): "What you / look like / what you wear" center sheet, pencil, artist's hand.
panel (c): "ma / vie / vie / vie / vie/ secrète / la vie secrète" center sheet, pencil, artist's hand.
panel (e): "I am a consumer / and / a lover" center sheet, pencil, artist's hand.
Installation Remarks:
This composition is one of 3 that constitute 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

My Secret Life

2007-2009

States
My Secret Life
My Secret Life
Unique Variants
My Secret Life
Untitled, no. 2 of 3, from the series, Sainte Nitouche

Series

2009

Sainte Nitouche

Related Works in the Catalogue

My Inner Life
The Twist
Untitled, no. 5 of 5, from the series, The Vocabulary of Seduction
Recueil des Secrets de Louyse Bourgeois, deluxe edition, front cover
Boxwoods
Untitled, no. 2 of 4, from the series, What Why When Where Who and How!!

Related Works in Other Mediums

Breasted Woman
Woman with a Secret
Untitled
Untitled
Publication Excerpts

Louise Bourgeois,

Sainte Nitouche,

New York, Osiris, 2009

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

No. 1:
Saint
Nitouche
une histoire
de
Louise
Bourgeois

No. 2:
What you
look like
what you wear
ma
vie
vie
vie
vie
secrète
la vie secrète
I am a consumer
and
a lover

No. 3:
viens le soir descend
et leur heure est charmeuse
viens toi si frileuse
la nuit avancée en
manteau descend
puis l'air est si doux
si plein de promesses
ou sent la caresse
des mots d'amour
qu'en écoute à genoux
What do you
think
of
me

French to English translations by Richard Sieburth and Françoise Gramet.
No. 1:
Goodie
Two Shoes
a story
by
Louise
Bourgeois

No. 2:
What you
look like
what you wear
my
life
life
life
life
secret
the secret life
I am a consumer
and
a lover

No. 3:
come, night is falling,
the hour is enticing
come, fear not the cold,
the falling night
like a cloak is spreading
the air is so mild
so full of promises
one feels the caress
of words of love
heard on bended knee
What do you
think
of
me