No exit

In its starkness and austerity, No Exit (1989) remains one of the key works of the late 1980s. It is inspired by a childhood memory, when the Louise Bourgeois hid under the stairs to spy on her father. A sheet metal screen surrounds a flight of stairs that lead nowhere, at the foot of which are two large wooden spheres. Explicit reference to the figure of the father, the work evokes the male reproductive system and/or the entrance to a large house. The house contains all the childhood memories of Louise Bourgeois, whose family life was volatile due to her father’s erratic behavior, and his cheating on Louise’s mother with the artist’s English au pair. This piece symbolizes the interior/exterior duality, the interiorization of emotions and the exteriorization of feelings. The title No Exit highlights the irreversible nature of childhood traumas and the weight of the secrecy surrounding them. However, the artist hung two rubber hearts inside the staircase, evoking the vital importance of love.