Transformative Objects and the Aesthetics of Play: Louise Bourgeois’s Sculpture, 1947-2000 (New Encounters: Arts, Cultures, Concepts)

This book considers the sculpture of Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) in light of psychoanalyst D.W. Winnicott’s (1896-1971) radical ideas regarding transitional objects, potential space, and play, offering a model for exploring the complex and psychologically evocative work Bourgeois produced from 1947 to 2000.Critical concepts from British object relational theories - destruction, reparation, integration, relationality and play - drawn from the writings of Winnicott, Melanie Klein, Marion Milner, and Christopher Bollas, among others, bear upon the decades-long study of psychoanalysis Bourgeois brought to her sculptural production that was symbolic, metaphorical, and most importantly, useful. The book demonstrates how Bourgeois’s transformative sculptural objects and environments are invested in object relations, both psychical and tangible, and explores Bourgeois’s contention that the observer physically engage with the intricate sculptural objects and architectural spaces she produced.E