Us Two Together (Graphic Medicine)

In this beautifully illustrated graphic novel, now translated into English from Dutch, artist Ephameron chronicles her father’s losing battle with early-onset primary progressive aphasia (PPA)―a rare form of dementia that advanced slowly and left him unable to speak or to coordinate his thoughts and actions.

A moving sequence of paper collage illustrations layered under text depicts Ephameron’s father’s decline and her family’s experience of caring for him. Compositional techniques combined with image, rhythm, and narrative work both to convey emotion and to frame illness in its context. Unlike other portrayals of dementia, Ephameron’s does not shy away from portraying the brutality of the disease. Us Two Together is a poetic and melancholic depiction of how dementia slowly disintegrates a body.