Louise Bourgeois: Structures of Existence: The Cells

by Julienne Lorz (Editor)

Focusing on a signature phase of Louise Bourgeois's oeuvre, this volume includes in-depth examinations of a selection of the sculptor's Cells series while also studying the innovative series in its entirety. Like the majority of Bourgeois's pieces, her series of Cells are at once enigmatic and extremely personal. Constructed during the last two decades of the artist's life, these complex and sophisticated works are daring and provocative. Many are small enclosures into which the viewer is prompted to peer inward at arrangements of symbolic objects; others are small rooms into which the viewer is invited to enter. In her Cells, Bourgeois uses sculptural forms that she made, found objects, and personal items that held significant meaning for her. Six Cells from throughout the series are given close scrutiny, revealing the enormous diversity of Bourgeois's vision as well as recurring themes of physical and emotional pain, voyeurism, integration, and disintegration. A section of color reproductions includes images and details of the entire series. Together with extensive essays on the Cells' evolution and an interview with the artist's assistant, Jerry Gorovoy, this volume offers a holistic appreciation of a crucial phase in Bourgeois's highly influential career.

Genres: Art

288 pages, Hardcover

First published April 14, 2015

Reviews

[Denver Public Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

My fascination with the artist Louise Bourgeois began when watching the 2008 documentary Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, the Mistress, and the Tangerine. Her mesmerizing process, brusque attitude, and unapologetic honesty were absolutely magnetizing. During her lifetime she created deeply personal, immense sculptures and installations utilizing found objects, metalwork, and textiles. Exploring themes of sexuality and family, she has been categorized as a feminist, minimalist, surrealist, and abstract expressionist, but her ability to move fluidly through these pigeonholes is a testament to her ability. Louise Bourgeois: Structures of Existence: The Cells explores the artist’s installation series created late in her life in which Bourgeois created rooms of experiences that the viewer must enter to experience. Driven by the desire not to be limited by the size or spatial restrictions of a museum these “cells” drastically vary in size and shape and serve to be sort of three-dimensional diary entries that are not restrained in any form of timeline. The volume includes interviews with assistants, fans, and curators, but also descriptions of the work from the woman herself, which allow you understand that Bourgeois was creating these works for herself alone to understand fear, pain, life, and death.

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- Hana

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of Louise Bourgeois.....this book gives a clear history of her artwork, and I love how each chapter is written by a different art critic.