Louise Bourgeois
Ode á la Bièvre, 2007

Ode á la Bièvre was made by Louise Bourgeois in 2002 as an embroidered book from fragments of cloth. In the book, she reminisces, through images and text, about the impact the river had on her. Her family moved next to the Bièvre in the suburbs of Paris when she was 8 years old (1919). Years later, Bourgeois was to go back to that house with her own family only to find the river to no longer exist, "only the trees that my father had planted along its edge remained as a witness."

A facsimile edition published by Zucker Art Books (New York, USA) has been produced as a printed book of 52 pages in an edition of 1800 copies, bound in hand dyed linen and presented in a slipcase. There is also a special edition of 95 copies plus 25 artist proof copies signed and numbered by the artist. The special edition copies are accompanied by two signed photographs of the River Bièvre, one taken in 1920 and the other taken in 1951, when Louise Bourgeois returned with her children to find the garden in a melancholic state of decline.