Articles

Our words and pictures explore the connections between science, medicine, life and art. Dive into one no matter where in the world you are.

1-20
  • Article

Drug sharing in desperate times

When Nicole was threatened with deportation, her mental health deteriorated. Now without a job, a passport or a doctor, she depends on others to send her their leftover anxiety drugs.

Photographic portrait of a man's head and shoulders in profile, looking to the left. He is pictured in silhouette against a cream background. Overlaid onto his neck and shoulders is an image of a scar, showing the texture of the skin and the scar tissue. The man's face is looking at a reflection of himself as if in a mirror although his reflection is cut off so only half of this head can be seen.
  • Article

Written on my body

Scars mean David Jesudason has never enjoyed seeing his reflection. Recounting the stories behind the marks on his face and body, he finds the only one that symbolises hope and happiness.

Ruby Elliot webcomic (detail)
  • Comic

Weight

What would you compare your weight to?

Part of Rubyetc

A Mezzotint drawing in black and white showing a man being tugged left and right by two women, one towards a church and another towards a brothel. Lettering beneath reads 'the contest between the spirit and the flesh'. The item is pictured on a grey concrete textured background
  • In pictures

Sex work through the ages

Discover how societies, from antiquity to the present day, have chosen to regard and treat sex workers. While some communities work towards acceptance, others retain harsh judgement.

Rubyetc webcomic promo detail
  • Comic

Modern hunter-gatherer

Finding food has never been so easy

Part of Rubyetc

Sepia toned photograph with a digital filter applied to give the impression the photograph was created using a glass-plate process from the mid 19th century. The effect of this filter includes scratches and fingerprints. The photograph shows a woodland scene made up of tall grasses, bracken and distant trees. In the centre of the image stands a tall woman dressed in a black floor length skirt and a white blouse embellished with frills and large cuffs. She is looking straight to camera, her right arm is raised to her side, palm facing upwards. Wrapped around her neck and running over her shoulder and down to her open hand is a long dark toned snake. The centre of the frame is in sharp focus, but the edges descend quickly into a blur.
  • Article

The extraordinary body of Evatima Tardo

Darling of 19th-century American freak shows, Evatima Tardo remained serene as she withstood crucifixion and the bites of poisonous snakes. But she took the secret behind her abilities to her grave.

Photograph of a technical illustration of a woman in a corset being measured by a device, indicating dimensions to be measured, against a grey concrete textured background.
  • In pictures

Revealing the iron corset

There are around 15 iron corsets in museum collections around the world, including two in Wellcome Collection. Historians still dispute their purpose, but these intriguing objects hold clues about who would have worn them and why.

Rubyetc webcomic promo detail
  • Comic

January diet

Is your January diet turning you into a dragon?

Photograph of four portraits featuring LGBTQ+ comedians, framed within a white paper frames. To the right of the image, an anonymous figure is also framed within a white frame. Layered beneath them in tiers are the LGBTQ+ colours of red, orange, yellow, green blue and purple; which forms the floor of the set. The colours are laid out in such a way as they form a chevron.
  • Article

In celebration of LGBTQ+ comedy

At school, homophobic jokes made Ella Braidwood feel uncomfortable and ashamed. Fast-forward to today’s inclusive comedy scene, and her very different feelings of hope and happiness.

Webcomic showing half a face with a closed eye, coloured purple, with blue and orange droplets on. On the right of the frame, the silhouettes of two people are shown, one coloured yellow with purple and blue droplets on their body, and one black.
  • In pictures

Still ill: Corona diary

In vivid words and pictures, artist Monique Jackson depicts her experience of becoming ill with Covid-19 last year.

Web comic (detail)
  • Comic

Being human

Drop the list and just exist.

Part of Worry Lines

Digital artwork using a colourful, fantastical approach. The artwork shows the head of a woman in the centre against a cosmic, star scattered background. Above her head is a moon-like orb. Swirling over and around her head, and out to the edges of the image are floral motifs and squiggly lines of reds, yellow, oranges and blues. The whole scene has a dream-like feeling to it.
  • Article

Vivid nights, dream-filled days

Each night, intense and memorable dreams create another life for Katie da Cunha Lewin. Find out how her waking and dreaming selves have become enmeshed, allowing her powerful self-knowledge.

Photograph of a simple theatre stage set, made out of card. The background surrounding the stage is black. The stage floor is white and the framing of the stage is made out of 3 square edged arches, each one smaller than the other, receding backwards. The first arch is cream coloured and the other two are a red. On the stage is a small cut out illustration of a man with a moustache from the early 20th century. Behind him forming the backdrop is a black and white drawing of a group of suited men gathered around a table looking towards the viewer. Under these men are a list of their names.
  • Story

The father of handwashing

Doctors performing autopsies and then delivering babies – with not a hint of soap in between – was the grim recipe producing a lot of motherless offspring in the 1800s. But one man’s gargantuan efforts to upend accepted medical thinking turned the tide.

Webcomic by Worry Lines (detail)
  • Comic

You're doing well

Sometimes it's just enough to be a human being.

Part of Worry Lines

Artwork using watercolour and ink incorporating collaged words throughout the scene. The artwork shows a busy multi-coloured household room separated by intersecting white lines drawn across the floor. The theme is that of a desert island containing elements such as: a treasure chest filled with toilet rolls; a wall clock with oversized hands; an artwork depicting the coronavirus; a doorway with a large cross drawn through it on which there is a disabled symbol of a wheelchair; a rainbow painted on a wall; and a small rocket with the words ‘medical’ and ‘NHS’ taking off out of a palm tree. In the background, a bath overflows with turquois water onto golden sand leading to the foreground where a video camera with the word ‘pandemic’ is mounted on a tripod. Opposite that, a man dressed in a ruff and a crown sits against a wall looking tired with various icons including a disabled symbol with a wheelchair, as well as those belonging to social media joined by dotted lines above his head. On his crown are the words ‘moody’, ‘creativity’, ‘work’ and ‘art’, while on his chest is the word ‘objectified’. Kneeling beside him, another person dressed as a pirate, holds a box of pasta.
  • Article

How to thrive in lockdown

Gareth Berliner shares how being a Disabled person has given him the resilience and motivation to find a new creative challenge during lockdown.

Part of The Disabled lockdown experience

Artwork using watercolour and ink incorporating collaged words throughout the scene. The artwork shows a busy multi-coloured room. On the left hand side of the image a woman with rainbow coloured hair is lying in bed. On the floor there are: packets of paracetamol; toilet rolls; and a toy clown juggling first aid, corona virus and pound symbols. In the foreground the silhouette of two people stand together at a distance from the bed. A rainbow flows across the room where a television mounted on the wall delivers Covid related news. Alongside the television, a window overlooking the outside world is filled with words including ‘ableism’. Next to the window is a door with a few words including the phrase ‘no access’. Beside the door is a picture of the word ‘life’ burning in flames. On the right hand side of the image is a bar, including someone sitting on one of the bar stools, and a packet of NHS crisps exploded on the floor. On the bar is the word ‘community’. On a pathway along which arrows dart in different directions, stands a wheelchair, this separates the bedroom scene from the bar scene.
  • Article

Our Covid complicity

Athena Stevens thought she had a cold that she tried to ignore, but it turned out to be Covid-19. Here she reflects on how we have all put ourselves and others at risk with the choices we’ve made during this pandemic.

Part of The Disabled lockdown experience

Artwork using watercolour and ink incorporating collaged words throughout the scene. The artwork shows a busy household room divided down the middle by a white line drawn across the floor. Around the room are candles, and books with titles such as ‘social model of disability’, and ‘neurodivergent’. The right hand side of the room is multi-coloured and the wall is covered in words such as ‘vulnerable’, and ‘disabled’. The word ‘only’ is circled. In front of the coloured wall, three small people are sitting besides lowered areas in the floorboards with water features as though outside. One contains the words ‘PPE’, ‘allies’, and ‘austerity’. A kitchenette with an overflowing sink, empty cupboards, a toilet and a first aid box, as well as a window with 2/3rds written across it appear in the background. The left hand side of the image is less colourful. Besides a man sleeping on a mattress on the floor fully clothed, are phrases such as ‘year of death’, and ‘basic needs’. Besides him are three ghoulish creatures, one with a speech bubble with the word ‘hugs’ and an exclamation mark.
  • Article

Society, not Covid-19, makes us vulnerable

Rick Burgess coped with the death of his mother in February 2020 by immersing himself in the task of protecting his community from Covid-19 and challenging the government's failure to protect and support elderly and Disabled people during the pandemic.

Part of The Disabled lockdown experience

Artwork using watercolour and ink incorporating some collaged words. The artwork shows a busy multi-coloured living room scene separated by jagged white lines drawn across the floor like cracks. In the left hand corner of the room, a girl sits in a wheelchair while a smiling woman with rainbow hair pours liquid from a teapot over her head from which butterflies, flowers and hearts emerge. Behind them are a pile of rainbow coloured books, and a window through which a rainbow can be seen. Along the back wall are various pictures containing images such as: a no access sign with a wheelchair within it, a first aid symbol, a corona virus, and a capital ‘R’. A security chain is holding a front door ajar from which plants creep into the room and across the walls. Outside a window, the corona virus can be seen. In the front right corner of the scene, a small man wearing a tie sits in lotus position in front of a laptop surrounded by cups of tea, crumpled paper, and a chair on its side. Above his head are symbols in circles such as a check mark, a pencil, and a smiley face joined by dotted lines. A green ribbon, the symbol for mental health awareness, appears in another circle in the centre of the room.
  • Article

Caring for our Disabled daughter in lockdown

Jane Holmes talks about the challenges of caring for her Disabled daughter while working and trying to stay safe during the pandemic.

Part of The Disabled lockdown experience

Artwork using watercolour and ink incorporating collaged words throughout the scene. The artwork shows a busy multi-coloured room separated by jagged white lines drawn across the floor incorporating social media icons in circles. In the background, there are kitchen cabinets, and windows beyond one of which there are people with coronavirus heads. On a fridge with a no access sign and a wheelchair within it, stands a screen with the letter ‘N’. Red ‘N’ letters float in the air around it. On the worktop a cat plays with a coronavirus. In the front left hand corner of the image is a wheelchair, and above it on the wall rainbow coloured pictures. In the middle of the room, a colourful tree reaches the ceiling causing cracks to appear in it. On the right hand side of the image there is a red post box, and beside it a couple sit on a sofa cuddling with mail and love hearts around their feet. On the wall a picture frame has the words ‘DNR’, ‘hospital’ and ‘passport’. Two arms with ‘corona virus’ on them, reach out from the picture frame attempting to embrace the couple, as does another arm from the right hand corner of the image with the word ‘pandemic’ on it.
  • Article

Lying low for lockdown and beyond

For Liz Carr the chances of catching Covid-19 are the same as for anyone else, but as a Disabled person she's at much greater risk of not getting the treatment she needs if she falls ill.

Part of The Disabled lockdown experience

Worry lines comic (detail)
  • Comic

Right now on Earth

What are you doing right now?

Part of Worry Lines