{"id":14286,"date":"2018-04-17T11:00:29","date_gmt":"2018-04-17T15:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/?p=14286"},"modified":"2021-07-23T13:04:35","modified_gmt":"2021-07-23T17:04:35","slug":"graphic-medicine-a-personal-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2018\/04\/17\/graphic-medicine-a-personal-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Graphic Medicine: A Personal Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jill L. Newmark ~<\/em><\/p>\n

When the idea for an exhibition on graphic medicine was initially introduced in the Exhibition Program at the National Library of Medicine, my first thought was \u201cthis will be cool because they\u2019ll be lots of cartoons!\u201d \u00a0Graphic medicine is an emerging genre of medical literature that combines art of comics and personal illness narrative.\u00a0 The National Library of Medicine is actively collecting this genre of literature, and many titles are featured in the exhibition Graphic Medicine: Ill-Conceived and Well-Drawn!<\/a>.<\/em>\u00a0 Growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, I loved reading the comics section of the newspaper especially following the adventures of Beetle Bailey, Family Circus and the Peanuts gang.\u00a0 It was the first thing I\u2019d ask my Dad for when the Sunday paper arrived at our house.\u00a0 As a kid, I would buy the latest Archie or Richie Rich comic book or sift through my brother\u2019s Spiderman and Batman comics.\u00a0 Reading comics was fun, entertaining and enjoyable as a kid and it still is.\u00a0 But until I began working on the Graphic Medicine <\/em>exhibition, I never fully realized the extent to which this art form could become so meaningful or how an exhibition about comic art would touch me personally and inform me of the power of the personal story told through this art form.<\/p>\n

\"Cover<\/a>
Cover of Tangles: A Story about Alzheimer\u2019s, My Mother and Me<\/em><\/a>
Courtesy Sarah Leavitt<\/em>
National Library of Medicine #101134333<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the Exhibition Registrar in the History of Medicine Division of the library, it is my responsibility to connect with the artists and lenders who contribute their work and their objects for display in one of our exhibitions.\u00a0 Adding objects to a display not only helps illustrate content, it can add rich and powerful imagery to an exhibition.\u00a0 The Graphic Medicine<\/em> exhibition is undeniably based on illustration and imagery, and on books created to tell about the human experience with illness and caregiving.\u00a0 When the curator, Ellen Forney (a cartoon artist herself), decided to add original drawings to the display along with books, she began making her selections.\u00a0 It then became my responsibility to secure permissions for the library to use the images, artwork and books in the exhibition. \u00a0As part of that process, I retrieved copies of the selected books from the NLM collections and reviewed the copyright information that appears at the front of each book.\u00a0 But my attention did not stop at those first few pages.\u00a0 I was instantly drawn into the books by the comic illustrations much as I had been as a child when I saw a new comic book on the newsstand.\u00a0 One particular book, Sarah Leavitt\u2019s Tangles: A Story about Alzheimer\u2019s, My Mother and Me<\/a><\/em>, caught my attention, not only by the illustrations, but by the content.<\/p>\n

Leavitt\u2019s graphic memoir describes her experience with her mother\u2019s early onset of Alzheimer\u2019s Disease.\u00a0 Through her illustrative narrative, she takes you on a journey through the devastating path of her mother\u2019s Alzheimer\u2019s, the rollercoaster of emotions experienced by herself and her family as caregivers, and the eventual loss of her mother to the disease.\u00a0 Leavitt\u2019s stark black and white drawings communicate the devastating nature of the disease and brings her world into focus, creating a poignant, personal, and touching story.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/a>
Courtesy Sarah Leavitt <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
Courtesy Sarah Leavitt <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

As I began reading the book, Leavitt\u2019s story started to become my story.\u00a0 The rollercoaster of emotions she described became my emotions.\u00a0 The pain she felt became my pain.\u00a0 My mother, like Sarah\u2019s mother, had suffered through this same disease\u2014slowly declining, slowly losing her ability to speak or comprehend the world around her, slowly become a shell of her former vibrant self, but still showing an occasional glimmer of the mother that I knew and loved.<\/p>\n

Through Leavitt\u2019s work, I gained a new appreciation for the graphic art memoir.\u00a0 When I shared with Leavitt how meaningful the book was for me and how what she described was so familiar to me, she first said that perhaps it was a \u201cweird coincidence.\u201d \u00a0She then admitted that maybe it happens a lot.\u00a0 \u201cAlzheimer\u2019s is so cruel and so painful,\u201d she told me and added how happy she was that I had found meaning for myself in her book.\u00a0 The medium of graphic and cartoon art can make difficult subjects accessible and understandable.\u00a0 Such is the case with Tangles<\/em>, a graphic memoir that makes an excruciatingly painful journey understandable, open, poignant and personal.\u00a0 I am grateful to Leavitt for having the courage and the strength to re-live her heartbreaking experience with Alzheimer\u2019s.\u00a0 Through her book, I found some comfort for my own painful experience and the profound loss of my Mother.<\/p>\n

\"Drawing<\/a>
Courtesy Sarah Leavitt<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"An<\/a>Jill L. Newmark is an Exhibition Specialist for the Exhibition Program in the History of Medicine Division at the National Library of Medicine.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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