From the Cracks of the System

In the absence of compassion, medical errors rise and emotional harm becomes inevitable. Patients remember how they were treated long after a diagnosis. Words carry weight, especially when spoken by someone in anatomical power. I’ve been collecting ableist quotes from outdated medical texts and MD-authored materials, collaging them into my pieces as a historical record of the medical gaslighting that shapes so many lives. By using these texts against themselves, I aim to dismantle inherited biases that persist in modern care.

This work is not only for the representation of the disabled viewer. While I hope it will be a place patients sit around to exchange stories and support - this work is made especially with doctors in mind. It is a mirror held up to the clinical gaze. I want them to understand how utterly and completely the barriers they can carelesslessly throw up in one moment can follow a patient around and trip them up for the rest of their life within the system. It seems easy to some of them to forget how much power a practitioner has over another’s future—but I will not let that be forgotten. This body of work is a form of care in itself, and a call to reform and infuse the clinical with glimmering beacons of humanity.