American museums have—surprisingly, unsurprisingly?—rarely exhibited Sophie Calle’s work. Now, the entirety of the English-language version of The Sleepers is installed at the Museum of Modern Art. (Finally.)

The Sleepers is one of Sophie Calle’s first artistic experiments. She invited friends, acquaintances, and strangers to sleep in her bed, photographed them awake and asleep, served each a meal, and, if they agreed, subjected them to a questionnaire. The result comprised her first exhibition in 1979: a large grid of 176 photographs, most with a hand-written caption, along with brief texts introducing each sleeper.

In the installation in MoMA Room 419, the photos and text “cards” are installed as two lines traveling the length of three walls. A slow perambulation is necessary as you read, sequentially from Sunday, April 1, 1979 at 5 p.m. to Monday, April 9 at 10 a.m—as opposed to standing still, confronted by a dense grid 0f short texts and photographs as the piece was originally exhibited. (It’s a very interesting variation.) Here’s a write-up in MoMA Magazine by curators Marina Molarsky-Beck and Rachel Rosin, in which you can also see a shot of of the installation.

The artist’s book The Sleepers (originally published as Les Dormeurs by Actes Sud in 2000, translated into English by Emma Ramadan and published by siglio in 2024) contains all of the photographs as well as a novella-like report narrated by Calle from the single, liminal mise-en-scène of her bedroom.

These are quite different expressions and experiences of her work: installation/exhibition and book. The intimacy of the latter envelopes the reader in a kind of complicity in Calle’s detonation of boundaries. The former allows the viewer to possibly notice when they want to move in close and when they (feel they have to) move away. (That’s at least one way of comparing; there are many others, of course.)

Go now, go soon, if you can. It’s unclear how long The Sleepers will be in Room 419.