About 2010
For over a decade, the body of artwork called Pharmacopeia has engaged viewers in the debate around our relationship with medical treatments, encouraging us to examine our own medical and pharmacological history. It continues to explore the tension between the dependence of our society on pharmaceuticals and the ambivalence we 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, collaborating with video artist David Critchley, the project grew 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 at the British Museum, to focussed artworks investigating particular medical conditions.