Echo

29 poems and 30 drawings/paintings created around the subject of my mother's illness and death from cancer.

The book reads from the front cover through to the end of one side, with the back cover turned like another page, and continues along the second side back to the front cover. The symbolism of the double-sided accordion format is two-fold: the content in the first half deals chronologically with illness, while the second half begins with the terminal clarity of death and explores the process of mourning; the intention is to make these two phases distinct yet connected. As grieving is not a linear process, we return again and again to the beginning, before death, reaching for memory, understanding and acceptance.

The book was accepted as a special submission to the Cancer Council Victoria's Art Awards, for a touring exhibition in Melbourne, Australia and throughout regional Victoria during summer-winter 2009.