"The image of sheaves comes from a strange childhood memory.  My parents were very proud of their garden, so there was a lot of gardening activity, and a lot of these things were, sure enough, hung from the ceiling. They would thread the string beans and hang them in the attic. And in the middle of the winter, it was a delight and a claim to fame to have these string beans to cook. It was a delectation."  Louise Bourgeois

Print made for the 1984 retrospective exhibition (1947-94) at Galerie Maeght Lelong, Paris in an edition of 2000. 

This high quality limited edition print maintains the texture of the marks made in the ink drawing and the ghostly traces of the pencil under drawing. 

Print made after the drawing from 1947, about which the artist wrote the following:

"These are sheaves hanging from the ceiling and they trail together. They do not need to be grounded anymore. They don't have to; they hang. When they hang, it is because they can't find an equilibrium on the floor, so they find another point of reference on the ceiling. The ceiling suggests that you have a different kind of permanence. It is a search for equilibrium, and you have it if the things hang, whereas the floor has revealed itself to be a difficult situation because people can push you over. Since you are drawn to a point, you're very vulnerable.