The Violence of Handwriting Across a Page

The Violence of Handwriting Across a Page –

An unprecedented overview of Louise Bourgeois’ art by Jenny Holzer.

Two of the most original artists of the post-war period, Louise Bourgeois and Jenny Holzer, meet in this exceptional artist’s book conceived and designed by Holzer to accompany the Bourgeois exhibition she curated at the Kunstmuseum Basel.
Despite their formal differences, both artists share a strong interest in psychological and emotional states, such as love, desire, sexuality, rejection, jealousy, murder, suicide, addiction and abandonment. Where Holzer approaches these subjects from a more socio-political angle, Bourgeois draws them from his own psychic life.
Holzer’s book is not a document of the Bourgeois exhibition, but rather a parallel work that further exploits the dynamic interaction between text and image in Bourgeois’ art. Working in a sumptuous oversized format, she has set up a non-linear narrative through juxtapositions of Bourgeois’ works and writings, deploying extreme close-ups, dramatic cropping, full-page bleeds, and other devices to startle and refocus our attention on Bourgeois’ concerns and obsessions. These juxtapositions are sometimes enriched with works selected from the historical collections of the Kunstmuseum Basel. The resulting confrontations are unexpected, surprising and inspiring.

A fascinating montage of images and writings, this volume offers a unique perspective on Bourgeois’ extraordinary work, filtered through Holzer’s eyes.
The artist’s book is accompanied by a booklet with texts by the director of the Kunstmuseum Basel, Josef Helfenstein, and the curator Anita Haldemann.