Two heads in profile against a grey sea, representing hope and despair in cases of cancer. Colour lithograph after A. Games, 1947.

The upper face is that of a sufferer, with lips rigid with pain, but looking upwards in hope. This figure is ghostly, perhaps someone in the future who can have hope, or someone who has already died but could have had hope, or did hope but in vain, and has already become part of the non-human cosmos. Below one sees a more substantial figure representing the reality of today (1947), in a position of black despair: she represents both today's sufferers and their bereaved relatives for whom the ghostly face above is only a memory. Around her is a grey sea representing the world of the late 1940s (or of any age)

To encourage donors to act positively, the hopeful and inspiring parts of the work (yellow) transcend the grey parts, yet the latter are not downplayed. The artist interprets the disease in personal, social and philosophical terms, rather than in the language of science (no men in white coats, graphs or histopathology). Games tried to put into his works designs that could not easily be taken in at one glance, to make people look at his work more than once and, in this case, feel for the cancer sufferer

[London] : [British Empire Cancer Campaign], [1947]

1 print : lithograph, printed in black, grey and yellow ; sheet 73.7 x 49 cm

Help us to give hope. British Empire Cancer Campaign. Please send your donation to 11 Grosvenor Crescent, London, SW1. Tel: Sloane 5756-7. A. Games. Verso of the Wellcome Institute's impression signed and dated in pencil: "Abram Games 1947 81/33"

Abram Games 1996

Copyright © Estate of Abram Games. Letter to the Wellcome Library from the Estate. 24 January 2001

Wellcome Collection 20286i