The Architecture of Care: Visualizing Invisible Labor in the Health Humanities
An Exhibit by WVU Libraries and WVU Press
The Architecture of Care: Visualizing Invisible Labor in the Health Humanities
An Exhibit by WVU Libraries and WVU Press
This online exhibit accompanies the print exhibition on view at West Virginia University Health Sciences Center Pylons, on view through May of 2027. There will be a virtual artists' panel discussion via Zoom on November 11, 2026. For more information, visit WVU Art in the Libraries website.
Days before starting her MFA grad program, Rachel Weaver woke up dizzy and unable to function – a condition that persisted daily for twenty years and stumped over thirty doctors before she received a diagnosis. What begins as a mysterious symptom quickly transforms into a lengthy odyssey through a broken medical system, where she encounters dismissive doctors, misdiagnoses, and treatments that often worsen her condition. Art by Alex Garant, design by Michel Vrana. Read more about the art and design here.
The exhibition celebrates Connective Tissue, the West Virginia University Press series edited by Renée K. Nicholson. Connective Tissue: A Health Humanities and Narrative Medicine Series, published by West Virginia University Press, is a broad series exploring the intersection of health, illness, and healing through the lens of the humanities and creative expression. Drawing on fields such as philosophy, history, literature, anthropology, and sociology, as well as narrative medicine practices that help clinicians better understand patients' experiences, the series seeks to publish a range of works including illness and provider memoirs, creative writing anthologies, critical theoretical texts, and hybrid works that illuminate lived experiences with medicine and disability. The series grew out of the publication of Fierce and Delicate: Essays on Dance and Illness by Renée K. Nicholson and her scholarly work in health humanities, with current titles including Dizzy by Rachel Weaver, the forthcoming What Kind of Mother: A Reckoning by Judy Sandler, and other creative and scholarly titles in development.
The Architecture of Care is an invitational exhibition born from a desire to interrogate and honor the "Invisible Care Labor" that silently sustains our world. This project functions as a dynamic site of Knowledge Production, centering the profound physical and emotional regulation required for caregiving, the complex domestic maintenance of chronic illness, and the reclaimed presence of the body in transition. The exhibition utilizes high-resolution reproductions and intimate artist narratives to bridge the gap between fine art and medical ethics, reminding viewers that healthcare is not merely a series of transactions, but a complex, deeply human web of connection.
Artists include: Sally Jane Brown, Julia Clift, Miki Nishida Goerdt, Molly Humphreys, Lauren J. Turner, and Randi Ward. The exhibition will also feature select WVU Press Book covers.