LOUISE BOURGEOIS, Estampes, Bibliothèque nationale de France, 1995

An exhibition catalogue published by the Bibliothèque nationale de France as part of its Cahiers d'une exposition series, accompanying Louise Bourgeois: Estampes, shown at the Galerie Colbert, Paris, 9 February–1 April 1995. The exhibition presented 129 prints made between 1938 and 1994 and was described by the BnF as the first retrospective devoted to Bourgeois's printed work. That spring, Bourgeois gave the library approximately one hundred prints spanning her career — a gift the BnF identifies as the foundation of its Bourgeois holdings to this day.

The cover carries a single quotation in its upper half before the artist's name appears: «Si vous ne pouvez vous résoudre à abandonner le passé, alors vous devez le recréer. C'est ce que j'ai toujours fait.» The booklet contains an essay by Emmanuel Pernoud, "Une géométrie du plaisir," which reads Bourgeois's use of grids, spirals and triangles as an emotional rather than formal language, tied to the specific colours she named herself — blue as the sky above New York, red as blood, danger, shame, restrained feeling. The back cover bears only her monogram stamp, a barcode and the original price: 15 FF.

The catalogue was produced in the same year Bourgeois completed the Insomnia Drawings (220 sheets made through 1994–95), revived the small press she had owned since the 1940s, and made Ode à Ma Mère — nine drypoints returning to the spider motif that would shortly develop into the monumental spider sculptures. MoMA had mounted its own print retrospective in 1994 following her gift of approximately six hundred sheets to the museum. This Paris show is the counterpart gesture: an artist building the institutional record of her work on both sides of the Atlantic while still actively generating the material that record would have to keep catching up with.

Louise Bourgeois, Estampes, Cahiers d'une exposition, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Galerie Colbert, Paris, 9 February–1 April 1995. Essay by Emmanuel Pernoud. Approx. 21 × 29.5 cm, 12 pages, staple-bound softcover. ISBN 2-7177-1933-4. Original price: 15 FF.

Condition: Good. Light handling and minor age-toning to wrappers, with slight edge and corner wear consistent with age; internally clean.