Born in Paris in 1911, Louise Bourgeois is one of the great lone wolves of 20th-century art. The work of the sculptress, a resident of New York since 1938, has attracted a steadily growing circle of admirers in the U.S. since the 1970s. The strong interest in her work found its first major expression in the retrospective presented by the New York Museum of Modern Art in 1982. The work itself cannot be appraised from the detached standpoint of cultural evolution or art history, nor is it possible to associate it with any given group of artists (L. Lippard). It is the expression of radical, personal symbolism that at the same time breaks through the boundaries of the personal sphere in its objectification of fundamental feelings and psycho-physical states. This volume contains a series of essays by leading American art historians, who approach her work from a variety of different perspectives. It also includes a complete bibliography on Louise Bourgeois and her work.