About 2010
The artwork of Pharmacopoeia engages viewers in the debate around our relationship with medical treatments, encouraging us to examine our own medical and pharmacological history. It explores the tension between the dependence of our society on pharmaceuticals and the ambivalence we often feel towards them.
Textile artist Susie Freeman and family doctor Liz Lee began to work together in 1998 and in that year won a Wellcome Trust Sciart Award. From 1999 onwards, often collaborating with video artist David Critchley, the project has grown from a 21-piece exhibition touring Britain to an internationally exhibited body of work. Commissioned pieces range from site-specific installations, such as Cradle to Grave currently at the British Museum, to focused artworks investigating particular medical conditions.