Waters of the Abyss: An Intersection of Spirit & Freedom

Published to accompany the exhibition Waters of the Abyss: An Intersection of Spirit and Freedom at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum February 27–May 25, 2025.

This exhibition and book represent the culmination of many years of artistic exploration, cultural reflection, and spiritual inquiry and they honor the legacy of those who came before us but also envision a future where the spiritual and the material worlds coexist in harmony, offering a blueprint for liberation and unity –Fabiola Jean-Louis

Multi-disciplinary Haitian artist Fabiola Jean-Louis (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Artist-in-Residence 2022 and 2024) invites visitors on a journey through the ancient and eternal, earthly and divine, personal and political. Waters of the Abyss: An Intersection of Spirit and Freedom features a number of original commissions among sculptures and paintings from the Haitian artist, crafted from the stunningly intricate marriage of papier-mâché, mineral stones, shells, metals, glass, and more. Invoking the sanctity of Vodou and its role in Haitian liberation, these works will transform the Museum’s three rotating exhibition spaces, Hostetter Gallery; Fenway Gallery; and the Anne H. Fitzpatrick Façade, into a map of personal histories, a site of communion, and a spiritual portal.

Fabiola Jean-Louis was born in Port Au Prince, Haiti on September 10th, 1978, and moved as a child to Brooklyn, NY, where she’s currently based. She studied at the School of Fashion Industries in New York and the Art Institute of Pittsburgh; she now works in a variety of media—including sculpture, photography, ceramic, and film. Her Afro-Surrealist work frequently explores spirituality, history, and the expansive complexities of Blackness.

Jean-Louis has been awarded residencies at the Museum of Art and Design (MAD) in New York City, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Her work has been exhibited at DuSable Museum of African American History, the Gardner Museum, and Andrew Freedman Home. In 2021, The Metropolitan Museum of Art commissioned a paper sculpture for a two-year exhibition, Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room. It debuted on November 5th, 2021—making her the first Haitian, female artist to show in the prestigious institution, which also exhibited her remarkable paper dress sculpture Justice of Ezili through late 2024. Jean-Louis exhibited at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum most recently in fall 2023 with Fabiola Jean-Louis: Rewriting History.

Featuring artwork and texts by Fabiola Jean-Louis, along with contributions from Peggy Fogelman (Norman Jean Calderwood Director), Edwidge Danticat (author and 1999 Artist-in-Residence), and Pieranna Cavalchini (Tom and Lisa Blumenthal Curator of Contemporary Art).
Designed by Siena Scarff Design
Edited by Margaret Burchenal. Lelia Mander, and Matthew Christensen
128 pages
Published by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2025
Hardcover
10.25” x 8.25” x .75”