Louise Bourgeois: The Secret of the Cells

by Rainer Crone, Petrus Graf Schaesberg

Now available in an updated and expanded edition, this survey of an essential series in the art of Louise Bourgeois serves as an introduction to her influential work. In her work, Bourgeois used materials ranging from rubber, wood, fabric, and metal to glass, paper, cement, and marble, through which the stories of her own life resonated with the lives of others. This generously illustrated book presents the complete cycle of "Cell" installations from the 1990s until a short time before Bourgeois's death in 2010. In these contained environments Bourgeois reflected on the human tendency toward isolation and her own memories. The book also places this work in the context of Bourgeois's life as an artist, including her youth as the daughter of Parisian textile workers, her studies with Fernand L ger, and her experiences with the leading artists of the New York School in the 40s and 50s.

Genres: Art

192 pages, Perfect Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Caterina Pierre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Louise Bourgeois: The Secret of the Cells sounds, from the title, that it will immerse the reader in deep readings of the artist's numerous sculptural installations that she made from the 1980s until her death in 2010. Unfortunately, this is not really the case. The book, which was revised and expanded after the artist's death, only covers a few Cells (Articulated Lair, Cell I, Cell/You Better Grow Up, Red Room (Parents) and Red Room (Child)), and even then, the readings are mostly superfluous descriptions of the Cells as opposed to critical readings with connections between Bourgeois' life and her practice. For example, Red Room (Child) contains a large stand with spools of red thread. Clearly this is a reference to the tapestry repair business of her parents, but the authors make no mention of this. The book contains sentences such as: "a constantly changing contextual reality -- continuously stimulating new impressions, sentiments, hopes and desires -- that is conveyed no longer by the text but through the image, raises the question of how ideas, values and concepts and today be mediated 'rhetorically' (in a wholly metaphorical sense) to a creatively involved public." Does this garbled spew of words mean anything specific to the Cells? Not really. There is a lot here that is not specifically related to the Cells. Also unrelated to the Cells are two chapters, apparently added to this revised edition, which covered the work of the sculptors Auguste Rodin and Constantin Brancusi. The question is, why? Clearly both Rodin and Bourgeois were interested in the aesthetics of the fragment, but this isn't really deeply explored from the point of view of Bourgeois' works. The chapter on Brancusi makes no attempt to really connect her works with his either. There are many comparisons between Bourgeois' works and other male artists within her milieu; but there's no attempt to place her in the larger context of art history or among other female artists working at the same time that she was. I tried to see if this was maybe a translated book, since Prestel is a German publisher, but the publication page did not indicate that. So, it's not that something was just lost in translation. I did not learn about how the Cells came into being; where they were first exhibited (the book doesn't even say where the works were when the book was published as there is no location information in the caption or the index of works); who has written about them; how they have been read by other scholars; and there are only minimal quotes from Bourgeois on the subject of these works. The first two chapters provide a good background on Bourgeois' life and works. Chapters III and IV have nothing to do with the Cells. Chapters V and VI are on Rodin and Brancusi. Chapter VII claims to trace the secret of the Cells and does nothing of the sort (except to claim that one definition of a "cell" is that it is a building block of life, which you knew from your 9th grade biology class). The last three chapters attempt to discuss specific Cells, and does so, but only in a mostly descriptive fashion. The Index of the Cells sounds like it would be a full list of all of the works in this series, but it only lists 38 Cells and she made at least 60 Cells in her career. There are some good family pictures in this publication that I haven't seen elsewhere, and the Index does contain information on the content of 38 of the Cells. I've been reading a lot on Bourgeois of late, and while this is maybe a good starting point for Bourgeois, the writing is a bit tiresome and I did not gain as much as I had hoped from this text.

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lady I like. What an interesting and strange installation and a decent biography to boot.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Louise's work, and after recently seeing her show and "cells" live in L.A., I was inspired to buy this. The images are fantastic, but the writing is a bit dense.

[Catherine Corman · Rating 5 out of 5]

In our refusal to confront our fear, we retreat into nostalgia.

-Louise Bourgeois