T5 RESEARCH: Barbara Webster, All of a Piece, and Life in Pieces

Figure 1. Digital study of self-portrait, 2026, digital photograph.

Barbara Webster's All of a Piece: A Life with Multiple Sclerosis is an important research source for my final body of work, Life in Pieces, because it examines chronic illness not only as a medical condition, but as an experience that disrupts identity, confidence, relationships, and the body's sense of stability. Webster writes from the position of someone living with multiple sclerosis after fourteen years of unexplained symptoms, including fatigue, weakness, and difficulty walking. Before diagnosis, her symptoms were misunderstood by doctors, friends, and others around her. She was made to feel as though her illness was imaginary, psychological, or the result of laziness. This is significant because it shows how chronic illness is often shaped by disbelief as much as by physical symptoms.

Webster's writing is relevant to Life in Pieces because she describes the uncertainty that comes after diagnosis. Diagnosis may provide an explanation, but it does not restore the body to what it was. Instead, it creates a new and ongoing condition of adjustment. For Webster, MS affects the brain and nervous system, which means the body becomes difficult to fully trust. This connects strongly to my own project, where the body is not presented as whole, stable, or resolved. Life in Pieces responds to the experience of living after a near-death event and ongoing neurological illness, where the connection between mind and body has been permanently altered.

The title All of a Piece suggests the desire to understand illness as part of one continuous life. My title, Life in Pieces, responds differently. It reflects the feeling that life continues, but not as a complete or seamless whole. Webster's work helped me think about illness as something that fragments identity over time. The person does not disappear, but the sense of self is interrupted and repeatedly questioned. This idea is central to my resin head, where layers of my face are suspended, misaligned, and archived inside the material. The image is recognisable but unstable, reflecting the difficulty of reconstructing a coherent self after neurological disruption.

Webster's discussion of public attitudes toward disability also connects to the concrete pedestal and the physical structure of the installation. She suggests that accessibility is not only about ramps or buildings, but about how people look away, misunderstand, or fail to respond to chronic illness. In Life in Pieces, the concrete operates as both support and burden. It holds the work upright, but it also carries visual weight, pressure, and heaviness. This reflects the emotional and physical weight of living with a body that is often judged from the outside.

The video components of Life in Pieces also connect to Webster's account of uncertainty and adaptation. Unsolvable reflects memory disruption and the impossibility of returning the self to a complete arrangement. Frustration focuses on the body’s tension, particularly through the hands, expressing the anger and exhaustion of not being able to control the body in familiar ways. Through Webster's writing, I came to understand chronic illness as a process of constant negotiation rather than acceptance in a simple sense. This research supports Life in Pieces by giving language to the lived experience of illness, disbelief, and the unstable relationship between the body, mind, and identity.

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References:

Webster, B D 1989, All of a Piece: A Life with Multiple Sclerosis, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.

Webster, B D n.d., A Life with Multiple Sclerosis: All of a Piece, viewed 20 April 2026, <http://www.lifewithms.com>.

Webster, B D n.d., Wrestling with a phantom, viewed 20 April 2026, <http://www.lifewithms.com/wrest.htm>.

Webster, B D n.d., Multiple Sclerosis: The Disease, viewed 20 April 2026, <http://www.lifewithms.com/msdis.htm>.