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Organised by
López Piñero History of Medicine and Science Institute
(Universitat de València – Higher Council for Scientific
Research)
Curator:
Ricard Huerta
We have all been puzzled by a doctor’s handwriting on a
prescription, trying to decipher the words. Who hasn’t
ever wondered why pharmacists do understand the
hieroglyphics drawn by medical doctors when they
prescribe a medicine?
Calligraphies of disease
is a university project that reviews physicians’
handwriting as an element of visual culture. The
exhibition held at Palacio de Cerveró, the seat of the
López Piñero Institute of History of Medicine and
Science of Universitat de València, is intended to
integrate a number of aspects related to doctors’
handwriting. A tradition is recovered and writings and
texts are vindicated as elements of visual art. As a
concept, Calligraphies of disease is a new
project but it also brings back valuable documents from
a heritage perspective, such as texts handwritten by
medical doctors and medical researchers.
Based on a highly innovative dissemination approach
applied in different European countries in the late 20th
century though not yet with repercussions in the medical
field, Calligraphies covers different aspects:
medicine, calligraphy, visual arts, diagnoses,
prescriptions, notes, legibility, family sagas, the
relationship between physicians and pharmacists, as well
as other aspects with unusually rich synergies. At the
same time, the richness of such writings is
re-discovered in a historic period in which manual
writing has been replaced by computer keyboards and
other communication technologies.
Calligraphies of disease. A doctor’s handwriting
is arranged into seven connected zones and an important
and powerful Educational Area.
These are the subjects addressed by each area:
Area 1. Doctors, writings and university. Great
personalities and graphic imprint. The University of
Valencia has promoted this novel initiative about
doctors' handwriting and popular tradition connected
with their calligraphy. The exhibition includes some
examples of the rich heritage preserved by university,
like documents and texts written by prestigious
physicians.
Area 2. The curious writing of disease. Difficulties
in reading a doctor’s handwriting. The Valencian
doctor V. Sorribes Santamaria spent the summer of 1941
at Fontilles Sanatorium.
The
book Cuaderno de Fontilles: un joven médico frente al
fantasma de la lepra y la postguerra (2008) tells
his story.
A prestigious palaeographer had to be hired to decipher
his notes.
Area 3. Graphic creation and family sagas.
Artwork by designer Tana Capó. She has prepared a number
of paintings and collages based on the documents written
by her grandfather, a doctor and a collector of fountain
pens. Tana’s uncle, son to her grandfather, is also a
doctor and a lecturer at our university.
Area 4. Pharmaceutical doctors, prescriptions and
advice in the central counties of Valencia. The
family saga started by Francisco Galindo continued over
three generations of family doctors in Ontinyent.
Through their graphic narrative, grandfather, father and
son review a tradition focused on the safeguard of
people’s health in a reference town for traditional
industry. The University Foundation of La Vall d’Albaida
participates in the project. Ontinyent is the starting
point of the travelling exhibition.
Area 5. The art of Chinese calligraphy. Chinese
calligraphy is truly an art. Thanks to the participation
of the Confucius Institute in the project, we can get to
know the artistic and visual potential of the writings
of oriental doctors.
Area 6. Communication between professionals, an
off-limits territory for outsiders. This area is
devoted to the links between communication, writing and
disease.
Area 7. The other calligraphies. Recreation of
the elements of in the narrative of disease:
radiographies, ultrasound scans, electrocardiograms…
Educational Area.
This area recreates a doctor's practice. Visitors can
dress as doctors and can take a photograph while they
write down a prescription. The prescriptions are then
hung on the walls of the educational area. The students
of the undergraduate studies Art Education and Museum
Management have prepared teaching materials targeted
at children and people of different ages: infant school,
primary and secondary education students, elderly
people, families and groups. |
