This book provides a comprehensive overview of the fabric works from the last two decades in the career of legendary artist Louise Bourgeois. “I’ve always had a fascination with the needle,” she said, “the magic power of the needle. The needle is used to repair damage. It’s a claim to forgiveness.”

This body of work began when the artist started incorporating clothes from all stages of her life into her art, and later expanded to include a range of other textiles such as bed linen, handkerchiefs, tapestry, and needlepoint. The fabric works mine the themes of identity and sexuality, trauma and memory, guilt and reparation, and serve as metaphors for emotional and psychological states. The catalogue – which accompanies the exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, London, and the Gropius Bau, Berlin – features works from numerous series, including the monumental Cell installations, figurative sculptures, and abstract drawings.

Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010) is one of the most influential artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, best known for her formally inventive and psychologically powerful sculptures.