Catherine Bertola
From the Archives, 2010
Digitally printed acrylic and vinyl
Cancer Centre, St Bartholomew’s Hospital
Bertola draws on the 18th century fashion for “print rooms”, where a room was decorated with prints pasted onto the walls and embellished with drawings of swags and ribbons to lend an illusion of three-dimensionality. Creating a modern interpretation, the artist references the architecture of James Gibbs whose 18th century buildings form the historic square at Barts.
The images the artist has used are all taken from the Barts archive and bring to the new Cancer Centre some of the atmosphere of the hospital’s illustrious past.
About the artist
Catherine Bertola (b. Newcastle upon Tyne) works across site-specific installations, drawing, and film, focusing on uncovering the hidden histories of women whose contributions have been ignored or undervalued.
Bertola lives and works in Newcastle upon Tyne, and her work has been commissioned and exhibited both nationally and internationally, including at the V&A Museum, Leeds Museums and Galleries, the Bronte Parsonage Museum, the Museum of Arts and Design (New York), and multiple National Trust properties. She has received grants from Arts Council England and the Leverhulme Trust.
