Nightmare Scenarios

Literary Nonfiction. Art. Comic. Memoir. Disability Studies. "NIGHTMARE SCENARIOS began as an exercise in drawing. I wanted to practise drawing people. One day I saw a man strap-hanging on the tube and thought he would be interesting to draw. When I got home I drew what I remembered, invented a scenario that would explain his carefree demeanour, and the idea for a series of drawings was born: people depicted in mental-health crisis. Next I drew a man wearing pyjamas outdoors, and based...
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Literary Nonfiction. Art. Comic. Memoir. Disability Studies. "NIGHTMARE SCENARIOS began as an exercise in drawing. I wanted to practise drawing people. One day I saw a man strap-hanging on the tube and thought he would be interesting to draw. When I got home I drew what I remembered, invented a scenario that would explain his carefree demeanour, and the idea for a series of drawings was born: people depicted in mental-health crisis. Next I drew a man wearing pyjamas outdoors, and based his scenario on a guy I had met 20 years earlier in a mental hospital. Then I saw a TV program on body dysmorphia and drew a woman who was suffering from that as well as from agoraphobia. Gradually I realised that these stories were all around me: on the radio, TV, in my memory and of course on the internet. And that if I drew enough of them I would have a book and what an achievement that would be."--Matt Barrell