The first exhibition to assemble the illustrated books of Louise Bourgeois (b. 1911) is now on view at the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia through June 9th.

Entitled "Louise Bourgeois: Illustrated Books," the exhibition brings into focus not only the artist's stylistic and thematic concerns but also her writing. Incorporating both her own texts and those of other authors, the illustrated books span the length of the artist's career from the 1940s to the present. The works are on loan from public and private collections in New York.

"Although Louise Bourgeois is incredibly well known for her sculpture, she has been involved with illustrated books since the beginning of her career, and it's something she keeps coming back to," said Sarah J. S. Suzuki, the curator of the exhibition. Suzuki, a graduate of Columbia's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, wrote her master's thesis on prints and illustrated books by Louise Bourgeois and is a cataloguer in the department of prints and illustrated books at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

"Bourgeois was a writer as well as a visual artist and has kept journals since she was a child," Suzuki said. "The illustrated book gave her the opportunity to flex that aspect of her creativity."

In addition to sculpture, Bourgeois has also worked in the mediums of painting, drawing and printmaking over the course of her long and distinguished career. In all of these, the artist explores issues connected to autobiographical experiences: betrayal, familial relationships, sexuality, motherhood, abandonment and independence, control and the loss of control. Bourgeois first experimented with printmaking in the 1940s, and has actively pursued the medium during the past two decades. Her involvement with illustrated books closely parallels this interest.

Since the age of 12, Bourgeois has kept records and notes of her daily life, encounters, thoughts and emotions in three forms: a written diary, a spoken and recorded diary and a drawing diary. These diaries are often the source of her books, and content for other mediums.

The exhibition focuses on works for which Bourgeois created both the text and the images, including the books The Puritan and Ode à Ma Mère. Her earliest illustrated book, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, from 1947, will be on view. Representing her first major step in intaglio printmaking, the book includes nine engravings and short texts, which Bourgeois refers to as parables. Other editioned projects that are not traditional illustrated books but combine text and image by the artist, such as the portfolios 'The View from the Bottom of the Well and What is the Shape of This Problem?' will be in the exhibition, along with collaborative books, such as Homely Girl with text by Arthur Miller and Metamorfosis by Maria Fluxa.

"Louise Bourgeois is a case of a female artist who has never enjoyed flashes of success but has had a long-term, consistent career and who has finally in the last decade been recognized for her tremendous contribution to 20th century art," said Bruce Ferguson, dean of the School of the Arts. "With her illustrated books she continues the fraught but productive relationship between image and text which is a fundament of surrealist art."

The exhibition will be on view through June 9, at the Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia, Schermerhorn Hall, 8th floor. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday, 1 to 5 p.m.; admission is free. For more information, call (212) 854-2877.