Louise Bourgeois: An Intimate Portrait

Artist Biographies, Women in Art.

Photographer Jean-François Jaussaud first met Louise Bourgeois in 1994 at her Brooklyn studio. Gaining her trust, however, was no simple matter—only after a probing interview into every detail of his life did she agree to a photo session. Their first shoot took place in the spring of 1995, but with one strict condition: if she didn’t approve of the images, they would be destroyed. Jaussaud accepted the risk—and earned her approval.

What followed was an extraordinary creative relationship spanning more than a decade. Granted full access to Bourgeois’s studio in Brooklyn and her home in Chelsea, Jaussaud returned regularly over eleven years, documenting her daily life and the intimate spaces where her art was born. His photographs reveal the deep, seamless connection between Bourgeois’s personal world and her creative process—where the boundaries between life and art dissolve.

This beautifully produced volume also includes excerpts from Bourgeois’s personal diaries and notes, along with insightful texts by Jaussaud, art historian Marie-Laure Bernadac, and writer Xavier Girard. Together, they paint a deeply human portrait of an artist whose work fearlessly explored themes of memory, the body, family, sexuality, death, and the unconscious.