Hospital Aesthetics

'This innovative juxtaposition of art and artists shows the shared experiences of disability are recorded in elegant and surprising ways.' --Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Hastings Center Fellow and Senior Advisor on Disability

'A field-defining book that brings a deep and scholarly understanding of modern and contemporary art.' --Lisa Cartwright, Professor of Visual Arts, University of California San Diego

'Beautifully written, compelling and extremely original.' --Faye Ginsburg, David B. Kriser Professor of Anthropology, New York University

'A manifesto for disability activism. Urgent and impassioned, it burns with writing theorized from the body out.' --Suzanne Hudson, Professor of Art History and Fine Arts, University of Southern California

Hospital aesthetics: Disability, medicine, activism argues that contemporary disabled artists are offering a new hospital aesthetics, where health and care are being taken into their own hands and body-minds. Hospital aesthetics is defined as artwork that explores the ever-subjective experience of illness, set apart from and outside of a clinical or therapeutic setting, and in opposition to the medical model of disability. The author examines the work of nine contemporary disabled artists and four care collectives from the United States, Canada, and Europe across five chapters, utilising a range of mediums including drawing, sculpture, installation, painting, performance, video, and socially engaged art practice to illustrate "hospital aesthetics."

The visual culture of medicine typically undermines and controls disabled bodies, often resulting in unfavourable physical and psychological outcomes. It is therefore imperative that disabled artists establish a hospital aesthetics to rescript medical images of disability, both past and present, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so, contemporary disabled artists contribute to a form of disability activism that seeks to improve mainstream bioethics as well as ableist museum and gallery culture. Hospital aesthetics presents a different perspective on disabled bodies, aiming to undo the social and cultural impacts hospitals have had on disabled patients, both historically and today.

Amanda Cachia is Professor of Practice in Museum Studies in the School of Art at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University. She is a curator, consultant, writer and art historian who specializes in disability art activism.