Now, Now, Louison

JEAN FREMON

Translated from the French by Cole Swensen

Progressing by image and word associations, Frémon evokes Bourgeois's history and inner life, bringing a sense of fascinating and moving proximity to the internationally renowned artist. The art world’s grande dame and its shameless old lady, who spun personal history into works of profound strangeness, speaks out with her characteristic insolence and wit, and comes to vibrant life again through the words of a most discrete, masterful writer. From her childhood in France to her exile and life in America, to her death; her relationships to her family and her young assistant, her views on landmark male artists, the genesis of her own work... through the moods, barbs, resentments, reservations and back, at full speed – this is a phosphorescent account of Bourgeois’s life, as could only be captured by the imagination of one artist regarding another.

‘The spider woman, the intellectual, the rebel, the sly enchantress, and the good girl sing together in this exuberant, lithe text beautifully translated by Cole Swensen. There is something uncanny at play in this small book, something I don’t fully grasp, but I suspect that elusive, haunted excess may be exactly why I love it.’ Siri Hustvedt