Parables of Care Present at Performing and Picturing Patienthood: Exploring Graphic Illness Narratives

The Parables of Care project has been present at ‘Performing and Picturing Patienthood: Exploring Graphic Illness Narratives‘, a symposium convened by Dr John Miers (Kingston Schoool of Art) to mark the end of his Researcher in the Archives residency in University of the Arts London’s Archives and Special Collections Centre at London College of Communication.

Last night (Thursday 4 April 2019),  as Parables of Care PI, I attended the opening session, handing out physical copies of the comic and live-tweeting using the event’s #pppatienthood hashtag.

Today (Friday 5 April 2019), Parables of  Care artist Dr Simon Grennan  (University of Chester) will participate in the closing session scheduled at 5.15 pm and titled “Performing on the Page”, in which John Miers  will be in conversation with Simon.

According to the programme, “through talks, discussions and workshops”, the symposium taking place at the London College of Communication is guided by the following questions:

“How does producing graphic autobiography help artists to express and process experiences of illness? How is the tension between fictionalisation and disclosure navigated in this process? To what extent do such narratives reinforce stereotypical models of living with, or treating, illness?

The Picturing and Performing Patienthood symposium aims to explore issues raised by this project through the perspective of artists whose work communicates experiences of chronic disease, scholars of graphic narrative, healthcare professionals, and publishers who have helped to establish graphic illness memoirs as a significant branch of contemporary life writing. The event will comprise a rich and varied mixture of panel discussions, research papers, exhibitions and practical workshops.”

More information about the event can be found here.

Parables of Care can be downloaded as a PDF file, under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, from

If you live in the UK you can request printed copies at no cost here.

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