Abstract Erotic: Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse and Alice Adams

This ambitious new catalogue highlights the erotic and playful sculpture of Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse, and Alice Adams, foregrounding their shared commitment to using abstract form to ask important questions about fluid sexuality, bodies, and humour.

In 1966, the groundbreaking exhibition Eccentric Abstraction, held at the Fischbach Gallery in New York, launched the careers of Bourgeois, Hesse, and Adams. It would profoundly shape the language and legacy of postwar American sculpture. This book returns us to that pivotal moment and, in bringing together these three important artists for the first time since 1966, explores the emergence of a new form of ＂abstract erotic＂ sculpture.

In this book, internationally recognised scholars of the three artists present new insights into their practice and its wider relevance to the art of the 1960s until now. By putting the work of Alice Adams in conversation with the work of established figures Bourgeois and Hesse, it aims to bring her work to the attention of a wider public.

Published by Paul Holberton Publishing

Exhibition Schedule:

The Courtauld Gallery, London
(20 June-14 September 2025)

Jo Applin is Walter H. Annenberg Professor in the History of Art at The Courtauld Institute of Art and the author of several books, including Eccentric Objects: Rethinking Sculpture in 1960s America

Julia Bryan-Wilson is Professor of Contemporary Art and LGBTW+ Theory at Columbia University and the author of several books

Briony Fer is Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art at UCL and curator of exhibitions by Eva Hesse, Louise Bourgeois and others.

Lucy R. Lippard, author of the groundbreaking monograph Eva Hesse (1976) is an American activist, feminist, art critic, and curator noted for her many articles and
books on contemporary art

Mignon Nixon is Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art, UCL and the author of several books