Louise Bourgeois: The Fabric Works

Fabric played an important role in Louise Bourgeois’s life. She grew up surrounded by the textiles of her parents’ tapestry restoration workshop, helping at the business from the age of twelve. A life-long hoarder of textiles including clothes, tablecloths, napkins, and bed linen, Bourgeois began in the mid-1990s to transform these lived materials into art. Through sewing, she attempted to effect psychological repair: ‘I always had the fear of being separated and abandoned. The sewing is my attempt to keep things together and make things whole.’ Published on the occasion of an exhibition at Hauser & Wirth London—the first to focus on Bourgeois’s fabric works—'The Fabric Works' is a fascinating window into this major aspect of the iconic artist’s practice.