Milk crate of books found in Bourgeois's storage. Photo: © The Easton Foundation/Licensed
by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Over 7,500 items currently comprise the personal library of Louise Bourgeois and her husband, the art historian Robert Goldwater (The Bourgeois/Goldwater Collection). These volumes were collected by or given to the artist, her studio, her husband, or her family, though not all books have a clear provenance. Each item has a call number that indicates its original location in Bourgeois’s home, if applicable. Cataloging is ongoing. Subjects include Art, History, Architecture, Psychology, Philosophy, Science, and more.
Bourgeois was a voracious reader, reading everything from art and literary periodicals to popular psychology. Many of the items in the library contain markings and inserts, such as notes and marginalia created by Bourgeois and Goldwater, inserted ephemera, and inscriptions by the authors who gifted their book to one or both of the couple.
Over 2,800 publications in this collection originate from the shelves of Goldwater's study on the top floor of their Chelsea brownstone, an area left largely untouched by Bourgeois after her husband's death.
Advertisement for Erasmus Books and Prints, 1958; LBE-0025 © The Easton Foundation/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
A portion of books in the Bourgeois/Goldwater collection were purchased to resell at Erasmus Books and Prints between 1956 and 1959 in New York, first on East 11th Street near Book Row, and later on Madison Avenue at 73rd Street. Bourgeois operated the bookstore herself, and was, by her own admission, a bad salesperson. She purchased stock for Erasmus at various auction houses and was active in professional bookseller publications and groups. The store was opened in the middle of her intensive psychoanalysis and coincides with a 3-year gap in her diaries, making it an under-documented period in Bourgeois's life. Many of these books bear Bourgeois's 'LB' insignia and bookseller markings in her hand. Cataloging and background research is ongoing.