Louise Bourgeois

French-American sculptor Louise Bourgeois was born in Paris in 1911, settling in New York in 1938. She began exhibiting in New York in the 1940s and has played a vital role in contemporary art for over half a century. Her 1982 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York was the gallery's first ever retrospective for a woman. It revealed a sculptor of immense distinction working with many materials, from marble and bronze to latex, fabric and mirrors. Since then, Bourgeois has exhibited worldwide, producing a beguiling body of work featuring spiders, cages, drawings and a range of found and sculpted objects. A recurring theme in her work is her troubled childhood, particularly her problematic relationship with her father. In 1993, she represented the USA at the Venice Biennalle and was the first artist to have an exhibition at Tate Modern in 2000. The book, accompanying a major retrospective touring exhibition, will provide an overview of Bourgeois' entire career as an influential creator of sculpture, installation, drawings and prints, as well as examining her activities as a writer, critic and diarist. It will include an illustrated biography, selected writings by the artist and a full chronology, making it the most thorough and up-to-date publication on the artist in print.