Will Hold on to Tenderness - Eva Bouzard-Hui, c. 1998

Eva Bouzard-Hui organizes Will Hold on to Tenderness around a compact central embrace. The two principal figures occupy most of the lower and middle portions of the drawn rectangle, while the upper right contains two disembodied faces arranged in a separate, partitioned field. This division creates a conversation between physical closeness and psychological distance: the central bodies touch, while the faces above remain isolated within their own compartments.

The figure at left is broader and slightly taller. Its shoulders form a supportive structure around the smaller figure, whose head tilts inward and rests against the other’s upper body. Bouzard-Hui does not describe the embrace through anatomically complete limbs. Instead, she allows several forms to overlap at the center: hands, sleeves, a dark oval passage, and the heart-shaped collar surrounding the smaller figure. The exact mechanics of the gesture remain ambiguous, but its emotional meaning is clear. One body is holding another.

That ambiguity is characteristic of Bouzard-Hui’s figurative language. Her bodies frequently merge with clothing, flowers, animals, objects, and surrounding structures. She is less interested in clarifying every limb than in showing how an emotional state alters the body’s organization. Here, tenderness pulls the two figures together until their separate outlines become secondary to the shared shape of the embrace.

The smaller figure is framed by a heart-like form around the neck and chest. Its pointed lower edge and rounded upper lobes make it resemble both a collar and an anatomical heart opened around the body. Inside it, a dark striped form descends vertically. This heart-shaped enclosure gives tenderness a visible structure. The smaller figure does not merely receive affection; it appears physically housed within it.

The dark oval crossing the center is equally important. It may be a sleeve, folded arm, protective covering, or shared object held between the figures. Its dense black hatching contrasts with the otherwise delicate linework, creating a concentrated zone of weight. Bouzard-Hui places this darkness precisely where the bodies meet, suggesting that tenderness does not eliminate difficulty. The embrace forms around and across a heavier emotional presence.

The figures’ faces resist sentimental idealization. The larger figure looks outward with heavy eyelids, a small downturned mouth, and circular marks on the cheeks. The smaller figure appears even more inward, its eyes lowered and head supported by the other’s shoulder. Neither smiles. Bouzard-Hui therefore separates tenderness from cheerfulness. The work proposes that gentleness may be most necessary when happiness is unavailable.

The title intensifies this reading. Will Hold on to Tenderness is phrased as a declaration of future action. The subject is not explicitly named, which allows the phrase to operate as a collective promise: “we” will hold on, “I” will hold on, or perhaps tenderness itself will be held by the figures. The wording acknowledges that tenderness can be lost. It must be deliberately retained, protected, and renewed.

This distinguishes the work from conventional images of romantic affection. Bouzard-Hui does not simply show two people already secure in love. She depicts an attachment that requires intention. “Holding on” implies pressure from time, grief, conflict, or emotional hardening. Tenderness becomes something vulnerable enough to slip away.

The two faces in the upper right deepen this sense of psychological instability. They appear behind or within a rectangular structure divided into separate sections. Both have pink cheeks and slightly distressed expressions, but neither is attached to a visible body. They resemble portraits, memories, masks, reflections, or images framed within a window.

Their disembodiment places them in contrast with the central pair. Below, emotion is enacted through touch; above, emotion is reduced to isolated expressions. The divided rectangle may function like a mental screen upon which alternate selves or remembered moments appear. One face may belong to each central figure, revealing private emotional states that remain separate even while the bodies embrace.

The faces could also represent the couple before or after the central moment. Bouzard-Hui often resists a single chronological reading, allowing several emotional conditions to coexist within one composition. The upper faces may be witnesses to the embrace, memories being carried by the figures, or parallel versions of the same relationship in which closeness has been replaced by separation.

Their red cheeks create a visual rhyme with the circular marks on the central figures. Bouzard-Hui frequently uses small concentrated areas of color as emotional punctuation. Here, the pink-red marks draw attention to the face as the site where inward states surface involuntarily.

The thin vine rising along the left side introduces one of Bouzard-Hui’s recurring botanical motifs. Its segmented stem curves upward and terminates in a small leaflike form, while another small flower or bud appears lower down. Compared with the heavier figures, the vine is delicate and almost ornamental. Yet it persists through the composition, offering a quiet metaphor for growth.

Flowers and plants throughout Bouzard-Hui’s practice rarely function as uncomplicated decoration. In Lifeless Love, flowers continue to bloom beside a relationship that has lost emotional vitality. In Flower Sacrifice, botanical abundance becomes inseparable from surrender. In Flower Beyond Your Grasp, one figure reaches toward an elusive flower while another appears to hold one that has already died. Within this broader vocabulary, the vine in Will Hold on to Tenderness suggests that care requires continued cultivation.

Its placement beside the embracing figures reinforces the association. Tenderness is not monumental or invulnerable; it is a small living thing that survives through attention. The vine’s upward movement also provides a counterforce to the figures’ emotional heaviness. Their heads bow and lean inward, while the plant continues to climb.

The handmade paper contributes significantly to the work’s intimacy. Its fibrous surface, uneven edges, and embedded irregularities make the image feel less like a formal public statement than a personal artifact. Bouzard-Hui’s fine ink lines remain vulnerable against this rough ground, occasionally breaking or fading as they cross the fibers. The material therefore participates in the theme: tenderness appears as a delicate mark maintained upon an imperfect surface.

The rectangular drawn border creates another layer of containment. It encloses the central scene but does not align perfectly with the paper’s irregular edge. Small lines extend or hang from the border, including a central drop beneath the lower edge. This imperfect framing gives the image the quality of a private theater, window, photograph, or psychological compartment.

Within that enclosure, the figures appear both protected and confined. Bouzard-Hui repeatedly explores this duality. In Shielded, an enclosing form offers refuge from difficult thoughts while also separating the figures from the outer world. In Questioned Love, an embrace can be read as both affectionate and possessive. In Lifeless Love, physical proximity remains after emotional vitality has diminished.

Will Hold on to Tenderness occupies a more hopeful position within that group, but it does not abandon ambiguity. The figures hold one another closely, yet their expressions remain troubled. The upper faces are divided. The dark form at the center introduces weight. Tenderness survives, but it does not resolve every emotional fracture.

This makes the work especially important within Bouzard-Hui’s larger exploration of paired figures. Her relationships are rarely presented as simple unions. Bodies merge, but individual consciousness persists. Protection can become enclosure; attachment can blur identity; intimacy can continue after feeling changes. Here, the promise to “hold on” acknowledges those risks while still affirming the value of remaining gentle.

The work may also be understood as a meditation on caregiving. The larger figure’s posture suggests support, while the smaller body appears tired or vulnerable. Tenderness is expressed through bearing weight rather than through overt romance. One figure allows the other to rest. Yet the relationship need not be strictly unequal. The two bodies form a mutually supporting structure, with their overlapping arms and clothing creating a shared center. The smaller figure’s closeness may also sustain the larger one. Bouzard-Hui leaves open whether tenderness moves in one direction or circulates between them.

The title’s wording ultimately prevents the work from becoming a passive portrait. “Will hold on” signals decision. Tenderness is not merely felt; it is practiced. Against the divided faces, weary expressions, and dark central passage, the embrace becomes an act of resistance—a refusal to let difficulty transform the figures entirely into hardness, withdrawal, or isolation.

Will Hold on to Tenderness therefore presents gentleness as both fragile and durable. The two central figures cannot erase the sadness visible in their faces, nor can their embrace reunite the separated images above. What they can do is remain physically and emotionally present. Bouzard-Hui’s work suggests that tenderness may not cure pain, but holding on to it preserves the possibility of connection within pain.