Louise Bourgeois's Cells series, spanning two decades of her career, is a profound exploration of emotion, memory, and the complexity of human psychology. This series includes about 60 installations, marking one of the most innovative and ambitious projects in her extensive oeuvre. Each Cell is an architectural space, a microcosm that isolates the internal world from the external, creating emotionally charged, theatrical sets using a combination of found objects, clothes, furniture, and sculptures​ (Guggenheim Bilbao)​.

The term Cell carries multiple meanings for Bourgeois, referring both to biological cells and to the notion of cells as isolated spaces, such as prison or monastic cells. This duality underscores the series' exploration of confinement and introspection. The series began with precursor works in 1986, with Articulated Lair, evolving into a rich examination of personal and collective emotional landscapes. The spaces she created within these Cells vary widely, from enclosures filled with domestic items and personal memorabilia to more abstract configurations, all designed to evoke a spectrum of psychological and emotional states​ (it)​.

The creation of the Cells was also influenced by Bourgeois's move to a larger studio in Brooklyn in the 1980s, which allowed her the physical space to work on these larger installations. This move coincided with a period of intense creativity and innovation in her career, during which she also began to create her famous spider sculptures. The Brooklyn studio provided Bourgeois with a new range of materials, which she incorporated into her Cells, including items from her personal life and her surroundings​ (it)​.

Bourgeois described the Cells as a means to both remember and forget, to tell her story and then to let it go. This approach to her art as a form of liberation, a way to confront and release the past, is a recurring theme in her work. The Cells series, with its complex interplay between the personal and the universal, between confinement and expression, stands as a testament to Bourgeois's enduring impact on contemporary art​ (it)​.