UNE’s Maine Women Writers Collection holds 2016 academic conference in U.K. on Artist’s Books and the Medical Humanities

On April 21-22, 2016, the Maine Women Writers Collection (MWWC) held its 2016 academic conference, a symposium on Artist's Books and the Medical Humanities hosted and co-organized by Stella Bolaki, Ph.D., at the University of Kent in Canterbury, United Kingdom.

The event was followed by a full-day, hands-on workshop on the same topic and was the occasion to launch the exhibition Prescriptions at the Beaney House of Art and Knowledge in Canterbury. Central to all three events was the MWWC’s collection of artist’s books by Maine book artist Martha A. Hall. These books, created from 1998 until Hall’s 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 books will remain in Canterbury on loan from the MWWC until August 14, 2016.

The symposium featured scholars, artists and medical professionals who explored connections among artists' books, health/illness, and medicine from interdisciplinary perspectives. Jennifer Tuttle, Ph.D., Dorothy M. Healy Professor of Literature and Health, and Cathleen Miller, M.S., M.L.S., MWWC curator, presented a well-received talk titled “I Make Books So I Won’t Die: Artists’ Books in the Archives and Classroom,” which focused on the myriad ways they use Hall’s books to enhance undergraduate and graduate education at UNE, particularly in the health professions. According to Miller, the audience was curious, posing many good questions and making several comments about ways to engage medical professionals in conversations on the medical humanities.

Also featured at the symposium was a screening of I Make Books, a documentary interview with Martha Hall created by the MWWC and UNE's Media Services.

The book arts workshop, led by artist Andrew Malone, was a day-long exploration of the intersections between creating or consuming art and making sense of health concerns. Tuttle, Miller and Bolaki began the day with some presentations about form, materiality and the power of the book to tell various layers of story. Participants ranged from medical practitioners to patients and from experienced artists to novices. Every participant was given simple forms to work with and materials from which to generate meaning. “The quality and originality of work that people made over the course of the day was impressive, and the books were deeply moving,” commented Tuttle. She noted that participants engaged in meaningful dialogue in both words and image, adding that some photographs of these creations will soon be posted on the MWWC’s website. 

Beyond Martha Hall’s work, the Prescriptions exhibition includes a supporting show curated by Bolaki and Egidija Čiricaitė, of artists’ books by national and international artists responding to themes of art and wellbeing.

In addition to contributions of the co-sponsors, the MWWC at UNE and the University of Kent, the symposium and workshop were supported by the Wellcome Trust; the Department of English, Program of Women’s and Gender Studies, and Westbrook College of Health Professions at UNE; and the University of Kent’s Faculty of Humanities, Centre for American Studies, and Centre for Gender, Sexuality and Writing.