Illness and Healing: Images of Cancer

Maria I.C. Issa is a research associate in the Department of Laboratory
Medicine, University of British Columbia.

This is a deeply disturbing book. The paintings are technically
excellent and the images they convey are accurate, yet alien and
terrifying. The perspective they present is that of a patient lying in
bed and looking up at doctors, at visitors, at that other reality “out
there.” The upward view is not one of hope, but one of subjugation by
a dreaded, painful disease. It is a view from a prison where one is
ultimately alone with one’s fate. Despite the title, images of illness
predominate. Elizsabeth Kьbler-Ross found this book
“fabulous”—indeed, it mirrors her description of the process that
one goes through when diagnosed with a fatal disease, emotions ranging
from anger to acceptance. Unfortunately, much of this book is about
acceptance rather than healing.

Pope explains the sources of his imagery, his motives, and how he fuses
feelings and philosophy into the final representation. Knowing “why”
doesn’t make the subject easier to bear, and even though I know he
escaped (recovered), many never do—and the dark overtones of his
nightmare haunt me still.