Shiten Mouth Ful of Tordes

The following work is a podcast which combines text work, research, and musings, examining gut health and herbal cure associated with laxatives. Grounded in a Western medicinal history, the podcast is structured around a piece of writing called It is proven, a fictional response to the medieval Welsh medical text The Physicians of Myddfai. The podcast also brings in Hildegard von Bingen’s writings on the stomach, astrology as a form of medicine, and a reading list of medieval to Renaissance medical writings.

CONTENT WARNING This podcast contains mature language and references to eating disorders, including restrictive and bingeing behaviours, and makes reference to fatphobia. The discussion and works included centre on digestion and excretion and discuss physiological and bodily processes and fluids graphically and in some detail.

Download a transcript to this work here.

Rebecca Jagoe’s practice examines how within European culture, the notion of femininity has historically been shaped at the meeting point of medical discourse and fashion aesthetics. Spanning sculpture, performance, text and drawing, their practice is project-based, and often rooted in one aspect of their own neurodiversity or experiences of mental or physical illness. They have recently shown work at CCA Goldsmiths and Jupiter Woods; their writing has recently been published in The Happy Hypocrite; and after co-editing the anthology ON VIOLENCE with Sharon Kivland, they are currently editing the forthcoming ON CARE together.