Hairy Spider

While spiders may be threatening creatures to many people, for Louise Bourgeois they represent a nurturing quality that she associates with her mother. In a maternal fashion, the spider weaves a perfect web that serves as a protective barrier and provides food. For Bourgeois, the spider also suggests the patience and industriousness that served her mother well as a skilled weaver in the family business of tapestry restoration. Thus, the image of the spider is capable of evoking both threat and tenderness; such a meeting of supposed opposites or a reconciliation of conflicting or even contradictory states is one of the most characteristic features of Louise Bourgeois’s art.