Lizanne van Essen

Osteoporosis - Medical Sculptural Book. Osteoporosis is a bone disease with an increased risk of fracture, where the density of the bone is reduced and the connecting structures within the bone are severely reduced. This book exhibits the characteristic holey appearance of asteoporotic bones.

Alcoholism - Medical Sculptural Book. Alcoholism is a compulsion to consume alcohol despite causing detrimental health problems and negative social consequences. The anonymous bottles of the book signify that any alcohol will do, whilst the massed ranks of empty bottles portray the increased consumption needed to obtain the desired effect as increased tolerance for alcohol grows, and refer the alcoholic "slavery" with the horrendous conditions of earlier slaves shackled in rows on slave ships.

Scar - Medical Sculptural Book. A scar is an area of fibrous tissue replacing normal skin as part of the healing process after a wound. A large wound is sewn up to aid healing and minimise the area of scar tissue, and the book displays this process.

Scar 2 - Medical Sculptural Book. A scar is an area of fibrous tissue replacing normal skin as part of the healing process after a wound. A large wound is sewn up to aid healing and minimise the area of scar tissue, and this book displays this process.

Pregnancy - Medical Sculptural Book. Pregnancy is the development of one or more embryos within the female human uterus for approximately 38 weeks. This book encapsulates the swelling form of the mother's womb as it grows over the 9 months of pregnancy. Expectant mothers are said to "bloom" and, opened, this book blooms like a flower, its optimistic colour referencing the rose-tinted glow of pregnancy.

Paranoia - Medical Sculptural Book. Paranoia is characterized by excessive anxiety and fear, accompanied by dread of betrayal or attack. The paranoid book is imprisoned by the bars of its own delusional fears and the feeling that something awful will happen.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - Medical Sculptural Book. Sufferers of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder perform repetitive inapppropriate rituals, experiencing severe anxiety if prevented from repeating these activities in a particular way. This book suffers from the same checking, cleaning and listing, with everything lined up and repeated over and over again in an attempt to keep the fears at bay.

Dementia - Sculptural book. Dementia is a term used to describe a brain disorder resulting in severy loss of memory, and those affected may be disorientated in place, in person and in time. This book portrays the endless cycles of repeated questions and answers that this loss of memory, and ultimately identity, entails.

Amnesia - Medical Sculptural Book. Amnesia describes partial or total loss of memory. The remembrance of events, places and faces may be lost, and with them a person's sense of identity. This book with its blank whiteness and empty compartments encapsulates the "empty" compartments in the brain following amnesia and the "fog" that surrounds the sufferer.

Hot Flush - Medical Sculptural Book. A hot flush is a transient period of intense heat, with flushing and sweating often accompanied by palpitations, leading to intense self-consciousness in the sufferer. This book encapsulates the waves of heat radiating out in spasms, with the bright red drawing the viewer's attention.

Hot Flush 2 - Medical Sculptural Book. A hot flush is a transient period of intense heat, with flushing and sweating often accompanied by palpitations and feelings of anxiety, leading to intense self-consciousness in the sufferer. This book encapsulates the waves of heat radiating out in spasms, with the bright red drawing the viewer's attention.

Parasitic Worms - Medical Sculptural Book. Parasitic worms are parasites which dwell in human intestines where they can form an irritating pink writhing mass, as depicted in this book.

Measles - Medical Sculptural Book. Measles is a highly infectious viral disease with a distinctive rash of red spots. This book suffers from this illness in paper form.

Measles 2 - Medical Sculptural Book. Measles is a highly infectious viral disease with a distinctive rash of red spots. This book suffers from this illness in paper form.

Jaundice - Medical Sculptural Book. Jaundice occurs when something is wrong with the liver, causing a build-up of the chemical bilrubin in the blood, and displaying a yellowy tinge to the sufferer's skin and whites of eyes. This book displays bilious yellow pages combined with abstracted yellow eyes.

Wound - Medical Sculptural Book. A wound is an injury which tears, cuts or punctures the skin. This book has been wounded through its entire form, leaving a gaping hole.

Psoriasis - Medical Sculptural book. Psoriasis causes inflamed red scaly patches on the skin, often covered with silvery white scales. It is a chronic recurring non-contagious autoimmune disease which causes excessive skin production, leading to itching and pain, and also to self-consciousness and poor self-image. This book exhibits excessive paper/skin with roughened patches and peeling scales.

Scar 3 - Medical sculptural book. A scar is an area of fibrous tissue replacing normal skin as part of the healing process after a wound. A large wound is sewn up to aid healing and minimise the area of scar tissue, and this book displays raw scars during this process.

Cancer - Mitosis is when a cell in the body copies itself to make a new identical cell in order to grow the body or to replace dead cells. In cancer the cells display uncontrolled growth, malignantly invading adjacent tissues, and spreading to other locations in the body via the lymph or blood. In this Cancer Book the cells are in the process of reproducing endlessly and spreading.

Pins and Needles - Pins and needles (paraesthesia) is a tingling and pricking sensation and numbness of the skin, both transient and chronic, often of the hands and feet. Temporary pins and needles occurs when pressure is applied to a nerve, cutting off the blood supply, but chronic pins and needles is often caused by more serious underlying conditions such as diabetes or multiple sclerosis. This book displays the classic pins and needles felt in paraesthesia.

Tunnel Vision - Tunnel Vision is the loss of peripheral vision whilst retaining central vision, resulting in a constricted circular tunnel-like field of vision. It sometimes leads to blindness, and has a variety of causes, including retinitis pigmentosa, glaucoma, brain tumours, hallucogenic drugs and blood loss. This book suffers from the darkness closing in on its vision forming a black tunnel with a view only to the spot of light ahead.

Pain - Sculptural pop up book