Couple IV 1997

Louise Bourgeois made "Couple IV", and though there’s no date for this work, one can see the tenderness and also, kind of, the horror, that Bourgeois managed to wrangle out of her materials. I feel like I’m looking at an old shop window display, like they used to have in Paris. Except, instead of pastries or gloves, it's a dark, soft embrace. These figures are not carved, but sewn. Like us, they are soft, they are vulnerable. They are literally stuffed into a glass case. One body is black, and is intertwined with another, and the second body has a prosthetic leg. It’s such a small detail, but it says so much about the work itself. It talks about the body in pain, about how it is repaired and how it loves. The work becomes a place for holding and embracing. Bourgeois has a way of finding a balance between something macabre and something lovely and heartfelt. It’s a really, really hard thing to do. It is the best of sculpture.