Between 1953 and 1978, she had only four one-woman shows. Instead she began to lecture at American universities, including Columbia and Yale, talking publicly for the first time about her family background and the motivations behind her work. "For me," Louise Bourgeois declared, "sculpture is the body. My body is my sculpture." But her surrealistic works were far removed from the ideal proportions of classical sculpture. Indeed, they seemed calculated to provoke distaste, and an almost uncomfortable degree of emotional involvement on the part of the viewer.