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Crochet I, 1998, Mixografía® print on handmade paper by Louise Bourgeois

Louise Bourgeois

Crochet I, 1998

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Crochet I detail 1
Crochet I detail 2
Crochet I scale

Artwork Details

ArtistLouise Bourgeois
TitleCrochet I
Year of creation1998
TechniqueMixografía® print on handmade paper
Dimensions33 × 28 in / 83.8 × 71.1 cm
Marks & InscriptionsL/R
Edition5 of 50, 13 AP, Proofs: 1
Provenance
Mixografía Print Shop and Gallery
Crochet I unframed

Louise Bourgeois's Crochet I (1998) is the first in a group of five prints the artist made with Mixografía in Los Angeles, when she was returning again and again to thread and sewing. Bourgeois grew up in her family's tapestry restoration workshop, where her mother repaired worn and damaged weavings, and she came to see the needle as a tool of repair and memory.


The image is a tall field of red loops stacked row upon row, each line doubling back like a chain of crochet stitches. The rows lean slightly right as they descend, and the bottom edge breaks into open, unfinished loops, as if the work were still on the hook. Mixografía casts each line as a raised, three-dimensional cord: the image begins as a sculpted metal plate pressed into handmade paper pulp under high pressure, so the red thread sits above the sheet rather than lying flat.


Bourgeois once said, "I have always had a fascination with the needle, the magic power of the needle. The needle is used to repair the damage." Crochet I makes that belief tangible — a patient pattern the viewer can almost lift off the paper. It is one of her most tactile late works on paper, and Mixografía can issue a certificate of authenticity on request.

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Crochet I by Louise Bourgeois | Heather James