Delineating Disease - A close-up of bone changes caused by FOP.

Exhibition Review - Jennie Gillions visits a first-time exhibition by Lucy Lyons at the Hunterian Museum’s Qvist Gallery in the Royal College of Surgeons, London until December 23 2008

Artist Lucy Lyons has spent three years drawing the effects on the human body of Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva (FOP), a rare disease that turns tissue and muscle into bone, and renders sufferers immobile within a second skeleton.

Her drawings, of living patients and bones of donors, are on display for the first time until December 23 2008. The exhibition is not purely aesthetic; Lucy hopes it will increase understanding of the condition and prompt further research.

‘Delineating Disease’, in the Hunterian Museum’s Qvist Gallery complements its setting in the Royal College of Surgeons, London.

The Qvist Gallery is a very small room, but its clean, white, almost clinical decor reflects the medical drawings well. Equally, because of its size, visitors cannot escape the exhibition in its entirety. There is no space to forget that the drawings reflect what is happening to real people.

As well as the drawings, the exhibition contains poetry and statements from patients and donors. It’s clear that Lucy draws no distinction between dead and living subjects in terms of respect.

“I felt it was important they participated,” she says, referring to both. Their voices are invaluable for putting the drawings in context, and add humanity to what could otherwise be a fairly clinical exhibition.

The skeleton of Mr Jeffs, a man who suffered from FOP. © Hunterian Museum historical collections

One poem, ‘Beatitudes for the Physically Disabled,’ is placed above several drawings depicting various limbs affected by FOP. The writer thanks people for their understanding and support. The drawings show incomprehensibly knotted bones.

Individually, neither piece is startling, but together they are profoundly affecting, neatly tying together the medical and emotional aspects of this condition.

All of Lucy’s drawings demonstrate an affinity and compassion for her subjects that is impressive, considering she is accurately depicting diseased bone. The passion is especially striking in the work on ‘Mr. Jeffs,’ who died in the late eighteenth century and whose fused skeleton is in the museum’s collection.

Mr. Jeffs’ skeleton is in a case at the back, for comparison. The seven accompanying drawings are precise, but Lucy’s sympathetic technique adds softness to the bones. Her artistic, rather than diagrammatical, style turns Mr. Jeffs into a person, rather than merely an exhibit.

The pictures on display are the result of Lucy’s ability to look deep into her subjects and build a relationship with them, while still directly interpreting what she sees. All her works are completed in situ; nothing is added or edited when she leaves.

Delineating Disease microscope slide showing FOP.

In three drawings at the end, Lucy has chosen to eschew pathology completely and depict a person, complete with face and clothes. The subject is a woman, who looks elderly, seated and clutching a walking stick.

These pictures are comparatively interpretative; the woman is less lifelike, paradoxically, than the dead bones in earlier drawings. She is genteel, unlike the disease that is killing her. These pictures, full of pain and fear, eliminate any lingering potential for visitors to leave numb to the horrors of FOP.

The Hunterian Museum, a fascinating and unique collection of anatomical specimens, is a respectful and calm place. ‘Delineating Disease’ has a similarly gentle feel to it.

There is only one instance of bitterness, from a patient describing a ‘flare-up’; ‘…it feels like it has teeth and it’s trying to eat its way out from inside, through your skin. For two weeks solid…you think you’ll go f*****g mad because you can’t sleep or anything.’

Lucy’s work is much more beautiful than the disease she depicts, and gives much-needed insight into an under-researched condition. ‘Delineating Disease’ is a welcome and valuable addition to this most fascinating of museums.