Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

edited by Marie-Laure Bernadac and Hans-Ulrich Obrist"Everyday you have to abandon your past or accept it and then if youcannot accept it, you become a sculptor."Since the age of twelve, the internationally renowned sculptor LouiseBourgeois has been writing and drawing ;first a diary preciselyrecounting the everyday events of her family life, then notes andreflections. Destruction of the Father ;the title comes fromthe name of a sculpture she did following the death of her husband in1973 ;contains both formal texts and what the artist calls"pen-thoughts": drawing-texts often connected to her drawings andsculptures, with stories or poems inscribed alongside the images.Writing is a means of expression that has gained increasing importancefor Bourgeois, particularly during periods of insomnia. The writing iscompulsive, but it can also be perfectly controlled, informed by herintellectual background, knowledge of art history, and sense ofliterary form (she has frequently published articles on artists,exhibitions, and art events). Bourgeois, a private woman "withoutsecrets," has given numerous interviews to journalists, artists, andwriters, expressing her views on her oeuvre, revealing its hiddenmeanings, and relating the connection of certain works to the traumasof her childhood. This book collects both her writings and her spokenremarks on art, confirming the deep links between her work and herbiography and offering new insights into her creative process.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

This collection of writings and statements by sculptor Bourgeois includes letters, journal entries, poetry, and interviews with the artist spanning the entire period from her student days to just last year. The impression created is one of lifelong preoccupation with a set of personal concerns that, as curator Bernadac says in the introduction, reflect "the fundamental dichotomy between professional control and spontaneity, between the conscious and the unconscious, between the expression that is structured, assembled, and thought through, and the expression that is presented raw, as the product of an urgent impulse." Readers not already familiar with Bourgeois's work will appreciate the small photographs of sculptures, drawings, and prints included. Recommended for scholarly and specialized collections.‘Kathryn Wekselman, Univ. of Cincinnati Lib. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

Since the age of 12, the internationally renowned artist Louise Bourgeois has kept diaries, collecting impressions "ever since I could look someone in the face--and catch visual emotions and remember my own." This book excerpts her diaries and drawing texts--stories and poems that she wrote to accompany her art--includes selections from the numerous interviews that she has given, and presents a fine sampling of the frequently published articles she has written. It is an intriguing volume, bringing fresh insights into the creative process of this great sculptor, offering rare glimpses of the artist, as we read her own words and musings in texts and drawings. Rather than explain, however, this book amplifies the complexity and hidden meanings in Bourgeois's work, drawing attention to the deep connections between her art and her biography. Reflecting on her brilliant career between 1923 and 1997, Bourgeois expresses her immitigable views on her art, on artists, exhibitions, and art events. Also included are a biography, selected lists of individual exhibitions, public collections, awards, films, and videos. General readers; undergraduates through professionals. J. Natal; Columbia College (IL)