As this weekend the At Home – talks: monthly artist talk is the introduction to her solo show in 2016 – Deep in the Heart of Your Brain – by Jacqueline Donachie. This was an important show for her – the first major solo show in Scotland for 10 years – but also for GoMA with a major programme achieved with support from a grant from the Wellcome Trust. She continues to live and work in Glasgow and about the artist who this year would have been showing work in Glasgow International 2020 as well as the Folkstone Triennial later this year.

Donachie’s work for this show was hugely research led and we decided to add some reading alongside the talk to give it some context. There are links to the publications on the artist over on her website and some information about the books related to Deep in the Heart of Your Brain below.

Donachie, Jacqueline. DM (2002). Glasgow, University of Glasgow, 2002.
Artist’s book made following a visit to the Saguenay region of Quebec, that charts the diagnosis of the inherited genetic condition myotonic dystrophy in the artist’s family. This was made following a Wellcome Trust collaborative award with Darren G. Monckton, Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Glasgow

Donachie, Jacqueline. Tomorrow Belongs to Me (2006). Glasgow, University of Glasgow, 2006.
The result of a five-year collaboration with Darren G. Monckton, Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Glasgow, that looked at anticipation, the phenomenon of certain genetic conditions worsening as they are passed on from generation to generation. This book contains the full transcripts of interviews with eleven scientists who were involved in the key research that proved pivotal in establishing the idea of anticipation as a true biological effect, an essay by Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt, documentation of the exhibition at the Hunterian Museum and a timeline of historical developments in the field.

Donachie, Jacqueline, White, Nicola, Jeffrey, Moira. Deep in the Heart of Your Brain: notes from an exhibition (2017). Glasgow, Glasgow Museums, 2017.
This is a companion publication to the above book Tomorrow Belongs to Me and speaks of lived experiences of myotonic dystrophy through interviews, fiction and a commissioned essay. It includes images from Jackie’s solo exhibition at GoMA with this publication centred around a key work from that show, Hazel. Hazel is a compelling film that directly connects the experiences of the participants – all sister sets, where one sibling has inherited the myotonic dystrophy gene and one has not – to a wider discussion around relationships, age and appearance.

Barlow, Phillida, Bradley, Fiona, Donachie, Jacqueline, Engberg, Juliana. Jacqueline Donachie: Right Here Among Them (2017), Edinburgh, The Fruitmarket Gallery, 2017.
A major monograph publication which supported her exhibition of the same name at The Fruitmarket Gallery for the inaugural Freelands Award. Bringing together work from throughout Donachie’s career, it includes texts by Fruitmarket director Fiona Bradley, writer and curator Juliana Engberg, and a conversation between the artists Jacqueline Donachie and Phyllida Barlow

We also asked Jackie to send us through some of the books that influenced her work and research at the time. A mix of fact, fiction, autobiographic, artist and academic books are gathered together below reflecting journeys that artists take through research for their work.

Hacking, Ian. Kinds of People, London: London Review of Books, 2006.

Harper, Peter.S. Myotonic Dystrophy – The Facts (2002). Oxford, Oxford University Press, Second edition 2009.

Marney, Laura. This Side of Heaven. Artlink, Edinburgh and Lothians, 2008.  

White, Nicola. Something in the Pause, Artlink, Edinburgh and Lothians 2009

Rancière, J. The Emancipated Spectator, (2009), Gregory Elliott (trans) London: Verso, 2009.

Silberman, Steve. Neurotribes – the legacy of autism and how to think smarter about people who think differently, London: Allen and Unwin, 2015.
 
Smith, Patti. Just Kids, London: Bloomsbury, 2012.
 
Smith, Patti. M Train, London: Bloomsbury, 2015

Spence, Jo. Putting Myself in the Picture: a Political, Personal and Photographic Autobiography, London: Camden Press, 1986