I WONDER: ART + CARE + DEMENTIA (2025)

I WONDER: Art+Care+Dementia began with a wall painting that echoed the words "I wonder" frequently spoken by Garry Neill Kennedy, Cathy Busby's late spouse. This book circles around the idea of wonder in narrating each of their life stories, their life together, and how they went through Garry's dementia decline—inside and outside the healthcare system, supported by friends, family, and their continued art making.

This book outlines Kennedy's Remembering Names, a listing of names that he began in the early 1970s, and that he returned to during his dementia years; his vigorous EIGHTEEN DRAWINGS; and his Arrangements, that were photographed by Cathy, documenting the organization of his belongings in his last years. These works are followed by Quarantine Countdown, Cathy's daily ritual of painting 1/14th of Garry's room in long-term care during a 14-day COVID quarantine period; Cathy's I WONDER, a wall painting started in the bathroom at Parkview care facility in Vancouver, and later completed as a memorial wall painting at Art Metropole in Toronto. To complement these works, Dr. Melissa Andrew gives a family friend and geriatrician's analysis of Garry and Cathy's process of 'creative dementia care,' while curator Mandy Ginson brings her perspective on both Garry and Cathy's other artworks into the conversation. 

Books are available for purchase, $25, at The Polygon Gallery, READ books, and The Federal Store (Vancouver), as well as at the National Gallery of Canada Boutique (Ottawa), the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia Shop (Halifax), and both in store and online at Art Metropole (Toronto).