The Sick Rose or Disease and the Art of Medical Illustration

2014
Thames & Hudson
London

A beautiful, gruesome and enthralling visual tour through disease in an age before colour photography. Brilliantly written by Richard Barnett — an academic medical historian — and exquisitely illustrated with images from some of the world’s rarest medical books from the Wellcome Collection.

The design is a contemporary interpretation of Victorian ornamentation. Inspired in equal measures by utilitarian hospital forms, pharmaceutical packaging and the sparse, elegant composition of medical typography from the period.

The Sick Rose was overall winner of the 2014 British Book Design and Production Awards.