Intermittent Episodes is the artist's attempt to confront the episodic nature of their chronic pain issues head-on. Both strangely cathartic and emotionally intense, Buckland-Willis documents their deeply personal experience in creating these prints. Actively viewing the body as it's own entity that deserves kindness and forgiveness has been part of their healing journey. The works are accompanied by the poem below. 

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On writing in pain

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It all comes back to the body. 

Frightened of the figurative? 

The body keeps the score but also if one more person asks me to read a book about pain management I just might scream. 

Why is the onus on the individual?

I'm so tired of being an advocate. 

I wish I could be apathetic but it doesn't feel like an option when your flesh is burning. 

I'm tired of talking about it, of being difficult. 

Never refute. 

Sometimes I feel like we've been set up to fail, but in the end, that kind of thinking only sought to immobilise me. 

Know that it's not you. 

Or at least?

It's not on you. 

Nothing about suffering is kind. 

Pain and suffering get lumped together but they are not the same. 

I am always in pain, but I am not always suffering. 

Joy exists in the spaces I create for her. 

It annoys me that religion has the monopoly on spirituality. 

I'm not religious, 

But joy is spiritual. 

And in its strangeness,

Pain can feel spiritual too. 

In many ways, my work is my clumsy attempt to visualise this. 

To ritualise. 

To insert meaning into something that is otherwise kind of meaningless. 

The nervous system is incapable of malicious intent. 

I would love to write a self-righteous book that healthy people can use to recommend to their fucked up friends. 

But I'm not much of a writer.