Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book also presents artists’ books and representations of illness, notes a shift away from interest in conventional narrative forms in ‘first wave’ medical humanities towards disruptive, experimental forms in ‘second wave’ medical humanities. It provides an important new door of inquiry in the medical/ health humanities, where texts are embodied, or literally ‘matter,’ as ‘artists’ books.’ The book offers a clear demonstration of how—in activity theory terms—the ‘object’ of pathology is ‘performed’ and re-materialised. It shows how web-based blogs can empower and form an ‘attractor’ for parents who (mis)perceive their children as suffering from illnesses ascribed to vaccinations. The book explores the key medical border as ‘memory,’ where the onset of dementia promises permanent exile and identity de-construction, a refugee from a life dis-membered rather than re-membered.