2010
Etching and watercolour, engraving, balsawood, paper, bookboard, brass
For a long time medicine was more of an art than a science and the beauty of simple and elegant patterns, specially where symmetry makes for recognisable opposites, underpinned the healer’s thinking and practice.
This book is a toy, an alchemist-medic’s diagnostic and prescriptive tool based on the the ‘four elements’ theory of reality, where age, disposition, character, biology, pathology and pharmacy were all forcibly grafted onto their symbolic associations. If I learned anything from making this book, it’s just how inconsistent and whimsical pre-modern medical thinking was.
