Bourgeois’s Maman is one of the most famous of her works. The spider, she claimed, was not an ominous or frightening figure, but rather a representation of the protection and industry of her own beloved mother, who repaired tapestry for a living and died when the artist was 21.
“I came from a family of repairers,” she said. “The spider is a repairer. If you bash into the web of a spider, she doesn’t get mad. She weaves and repairs it.”
