When I asked Louise if she wanted me to go back to her childhood haunts and photograph them, I never imagined the extraordinary adventure into which this would plunge me. In this book I have tried to describe, step by step, how, from a small gesture of friendship and nostalgia, I came to feel that I had been thrown into Louise s memory and into the heart of her work, through the complex mysteries of the creative process Mâkhi Xenakis Tracing a path through Louise Bourgeois s memories, Mâkhi Xenakis guides the reader through the places that marked the artist s childhood and formed her spirit, taking us back to France, to Louise s school and family homes. The book, which is published to coincide with a major exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, also reproduces vintage photographs and sculptures from the Bourgeois archives. These images, together with Xenakis s reflections on the way in which Bourgeois s past has informed her work, make this book an essential read for all lovers of this distinguished artist, as well as anyone with an interest in contemporary art.