Pathologize
Pathologize is an artist book about the pathologization of asexuality, and I focused on depicting the visceral discomfort asexual people face when doctors and therapists treat their natural sexuality as an illness.
For materials, I used skin-tone silicone intended as a tool for tattoo artists to practice with, vellum paper, and waxed bookbinding thread. The text and illustrations were printed on a laser printer, and the final book without the plastic bag is 5 inches by 7 inches.
Process
Concept
The design of Pathologize derived from its concept. When asexuality is pathologized, it places a person’s natural state into an uncomfortable medical context, thus the book had to become medical in such a way that it would be uncomfortable to interact with. The translucent pages making the text somewhat difficult to read and the unsettling texture of the silicone cover both served these ends.
Content
The text of Pathologize is entirely quotation; each source is a medical study on asexuality, cited in proper APA format at the bottom of each page. The art, in contrast, is completely original, each spread a section of one continuous piece.