An artist is collaborating with one of Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham’s top surgeons and his patients to create a new art installation for the hospital.

Visual artist Anne Guest has been hosting workshops at Fisher House with some of Ewen Griffiths’ patients, with the aim of creating a permanent piece of art for the hospital. Ewen is a consultant upper gastrointestinal surgeon at QEHB.

A Turn for the Better is a collaborative project between Anne, Ewen and patients who are recovering from treatment and surgery for oesophageal or gastric cancer. Their carers and relatives are also invited to participate in the workshops.

After seeing a previous piece of work by Anne displayed in the QE, Ewen contacted her to see if she was interested in collaborating on a new piece of work. “Unlike other forms of surgery, gastrointestinal surgery is beneath the surface and not particularly visible,” he said. “I was interested in trying to combine something anatomical with a patient focus – similar to what she had done with her other pieces of work.”

After agreeing, Anne successfully secured funding for the project from Arts Council England.

About the workshops, where patients and their families have been encouraged to bring diaries, journals and other keepsakes from their treatment period, she said: “We have shared so much and made work that gives a real insight into how people cope with this condition, which we hope will help others.”

Although Anne will be creating the final piece for the hospital, the work the amateur artists have created during their workshops can be seen online via a website created to accompany the project. The final piece of art will be completed by this summer.

You can read more about the project by visiting the website via the link below.