Too Visceral to be Intelligent

Sara J. Winston

This introspective artists’ book is a three-part installment, or dissection, of my Infusion series. Each distinct accordion book includes 30 out of more than 100 self-portrait photographs I made in a single day during my monthly infusion appointments that occur every 28 days and/or biannually to treat multiple sclerosis. For this trio, I pulled from days October 17, 2019 (book I), June 25, 2021 (book II), and May 27, 2022 (book III). The books transform medicalized time into an opportunity for active choreography with the body, the camera, and the book form itself. I examine the intricacies of photographic selection and choice, asking, what are the parameters of defining the “best” self-portrait in a series that looks at one’s vulnerability, care, and survival? The accompanying text, an excerpt from a longer piece of autobiographical writing about illness, is printed on the verso of each accordion, each with partial erasure as it reappears in each book.