Louise Bourgeois: The Insomnia Drawings (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9783908247395)

Bourgeois' thought-provoking collection of more than 200 works, produced during sleepless nights, provides inimitable insight into her psyche

Insomnia was a lifetime companion for Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010). Between November 1994 and June 1995, she committed to paper whatever thoughts, memories and images surfaced during her long, sleepless nights. The resulting 220 drawings are the quintessence of all the impulses, sources and motifs that inspired her work. The Insomnia Drawings shows Bourgeois' total mind at work: drawings and sketches alternate with poems and aphorisms in both French and English, interspersed with notes referring to the hustle and bustle of everyday life. The resulting series is a unique mirror of an extraordinary woman's life and work: beautiful, disquieting, passionate, inquiring and imbued with a quirky sense of humor.
As soon as the artist agreed to entrust The Insomnia Drawings to the Daros Collection, it was clear that this extraordinary work should be presented as a book. The result is a handsome paper-bound and slipcased two-volume publication. The first volume contains facsimiles of both the recto and verso of the 220 drawings. The second volume provides the reader with valuable background information on this complex and exhilaratingly beautiful work of art. Marie-Louise Bernadac, a leading Bourgeois scholar, places The Insomnia Drawings in the context of Bourgeois' oeuvre, providing biographical references for many notes, and pointing out the leitmotifs of Bourgeois' imaginary universe. In a lucid and beautifully written essay, Elisabeth Bronfen traces the nocturnal mysteries of insomnia and places this work of art in a larger cultural context. Meanwhile, the second volume offers a chronology and annotated transcriptions of all texts and notes. This gorgeous collection of work is a must for anyone wanting to take part in the imaginative journey through Louise Bourgeois' psyche.