Louise Bourgeois: The Insomnia Drawings (Limited edition)

$275.00

This exquisite special edition of ‘The Insomnia Drawings’ is printed in a limited run of 1,500 copies, with both volumes bound in a sumptuous textured cloth and housed in a robust slipcase.

This book is not yet published, but will be available from December 2025.

ISBN: 9783908247388 Category:

Description

This exquisite special edition of ‘The Insomnia Drawings’ is printed in a limited run of 1,500 copies, with both volumes bound in a sumptuous textured cloth and housed in a robust slipcase.

Insomnia was a lifelong companion of Louise Bourgeois’s nights. Between November 1994 and June 1995, she committed to paper the thoughts, memories, and images that surfaced during these sleepless hours. The resultant 220 drawings represent the quintessence of the impulses, sources, and motifs that inspired Bourgeois’s work. Originally published in 2001 by DAROS and Scalo, the two-volume set of The Insomnia Drawings is newly available courtesy of The Easton Foundation and Hauser & Wirth Publishers.

In Volume I, both sides of each drawing are faithfully reproduced at a 95% scale; Bourgeois composed mostly visual imagery on the drawings’ fronts, and inscribed the backs with poetic writings, aphorisms, and various notes related to the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Volume II features essays by Marie-Laure Bernadac and Elisabeth Bronfen, alongside a chronology and checklist of works, including full transcriptions of Bourgeois’s writings, which were written in French and English. At once beautiful and disquieting, humorous and passionate, The Insomnia Drawings are a unique mirror of an extraordinary artist’s life and work.

Additional information

Dimensions 26 x 33 cm
Publisher name Thames and Hudson Ltd
Publication date 4 December 2025
Number of pages 580
Format Hardback
Contributors Text by Marie-Laure Bernadac and Elisabeth Bronfen
Dimensions 26 x 33 cm
Weight g

Marie-Laure Bernadac has worked as a curator at the Musée Picasso (Paris), the Centre Pompidou (Paris), and the CAPC - Museum of Contemporary Art in Bordeaux, and was Curator of Contemporary Art at the Louvre from 2003 to 2013.

Elisabeth Bronfen is Professor Emerita of English and American Studies at the University of Zurich as well as Global Distinguished Professor at New York University.