Prescriptions (Beaney House of Art & Knowledge, 21 April-14 August 2016) will present artists’ books by Maine book artist Martha Hall for the first time in the UK. Hall’s books, created from 1998 until her death in 2003, document her experiences with breast cancer and her interactions with the medical community. They use many constructions and designs that challenge the conventional book form and demand a physical reading. The Prescriptions exhibition will also include a supporting show of artists’ books by national and international artists responding to themes of art and wellbeing that is curated by Dr Stella Bolaki and Egidija Čiricaitė.
The symposium, which will launch Prescriptions, will explore connections between artists’ books, health/illness and medicine from interdisciplinary perspectives. It will include invited keynote presentations, panels, a poetry reading, a special preview of the exhibition and a documentary screening that features Hall.
The workshop will be facilitated by book artist and educator Andrew Malone and will bring together health professionals, artists and members of the wider public. The aim is to create, in conversation and collaboration, an artist’s book that responds to the exhibition and the issues it addresses.
In addition to the Wellcome Trust’s support, Artists’ Books and the Medical Humanities has received generous funding from: The Maine Women Writers Collection; Department of English; Westbrook College of Health Professions; and Women’s and Gender Studies (University of New England); as well as from The Centre for Gender, Sexuality and Writing; The Centre for American Studies; and the Faculty of Humanities (University of Kent).
Click below for full programmes of the symposium and workshop and information on how to register:
Artists’ Books and the Medical Humanities Symposium Programme
Artists’ Books and the Medical Humanities Workshop Programme
For more information, please visit the symposium website, or email Dr Stella Bolaki, School of English, S.Bolaki@kent.ac.uk.