Relatively Indolent But Relentless: A Cancer Treatment Journal

(Hardback)

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Description

From October 3 to November 28, 2012, artist, writer and curator Matt Freedman underwent radiation and chemotherapy at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, for treatment of Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma, a rare cancer that had spread from his tongue to his neck to his lungs by the time it was discovered. This is the journal he kept during that time, his 35-day course of treatment.

Reviews

"This is a staggering and beautiful book. It reminded me of the impact of Maushow an unexpected form suddenly breaks your heart and takes an axe, as Kafka said, to that frozen sea inside us. In all honesty, I found this bookimpossible not to read."Jonathan Ames, author of Wake Up, Sir!

"Harrowing, hilarious, humbling, triumphant."Lawrence Weschler, author of Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder



"Freedmans assignment is to record the unvarnished, gruesome, and ultimately liberating details of his thirty-five day radiation and chemotherapeutic calendar. And the details are truly fascinating."Graphic Medicine

"An amazing bookMatt Freedman manages to make his story come alive, and thats what every artist/writer/cartoonist is trying for: a moment of focus and clarity that manages to convey personal insightFreedmans intelligence and humor comes through so clearly[this book doesnt] feel like a fictional [nor] filtered experienceIt worked for me." Charles Burns, artist

"Relatively Indolent is a work of tremendous courage, talent and zeal, that turns the most difficult experience life can offer into a beautiful, evocative, and even humorous journal that anyone with cancer or without can understand. It cements my faith that in times of pain, not only is art the best answer, it's the only answer."Paul Hoffman, bestselling author of The Man Who Loved Only Numbers

Author Bio

MATT FREEDMAN is an artist, writer and curator living in Queens, New York. He graduated from Harvard College and the University of Iowa. He teaches in the graduate fine arts and Visual Studies programs at the University of Pennsylvania. He has received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in sculpture and New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship in fiction writing. He co-curated the Paper Sculpture show that began at SculptureCenter in New York and toured nationally and the (B 19) exhibition at Long Island University. Recent solo shows at Pierogi, FiveMyles, Big&Small/Casual, Valentine and Studio 10 galleries in Brooklyn. An exhibition based on this journal opened May 10, 2013, at Studio 10 in Bushwick, Brooklyn at 56 Bogart Street. Matt was a cartoonist for 12 years out of college--his strip "Free Associates" was published in The Onion, The Chicago Reader, The Philadelphia City Paper, and his writing has been published by Cabot Magazine and The Pierogi Press.