The Art of Dying

What is a good death now?

What does death look like in the 21st century? Joanna Walsh sketched the dying for an eye-opening exhibition

It all started when the woman living next door started to die. Her bed and Joanna Walsh’s were separated by just the thin wall of their houses. In the lonely darkness, Walsh could hear her neighbour, sometimes in pain, sometimes at peace.

“Her death became part of my life,” she says.

“I didn’t know her, but I was sharing the rhythm of her life as it came to an end. It was a peculiar intimacy.

Joanna is spending two weeks at Wellcome Collection, where you can watch her make a drawing based on her work with patients at Sobell House Hospice.

Source: Wellcome Collection