mohaiemen

Karen’s Last Books

Naeem Mohaiemen, Karen’s Last Books (Ibsen to Nguyen), 2023

Karen Wentworth was the third person to sign up to use Maine’s newly passed “Right to Dignified Death.” She outlived her initial diagnosis and for a time, those of us who knew her well, began hoping for an almost mythological second life. The burial space she had chosen had a small stone that gave her life span as 1956-Infinity. In calendar time she departed through euthanasia in January 2023. The two years prior to her departure were full of activity, which included participating in Grace, a documentary by Naeem Mohaiemen about a daily routine punctuated by a medical routine that kept her alive, and a set of protocols that were for the departure, all interspersed with activities for living life to the fullest. 

Through the friendship between Karen and Naeem, she eventually curated a room full of works from the Colby Museum collection, which became the key portion of Naeem Mohaiemen’s solo exhibition at Colby. 

Karen kept meticulous lists, and one such list was a running tally of ten books she wanted to finish reading before passing away. The list was updated as she finished each book. This project is a visual index of Karen’s List, with drawings of each book cover by Naeem Mohaiemen, paired with an excerpt from each book (within quotation marks) and a few transcribed sentences from interviews with Karen taken by Naeem throughout 2021 and 2022. Sometimes the interview excerpts are related to the book on the left, at other times they are long, graceful tangents. 

Hi Naeem,

I enjoyed speaking with you and getting to know you and your vision for the exhibit.

The four books I bought in Atlanta (2 were on the list):

  Klara and the Sun

  How Beautiful We Were

  The Lost Apothecary

  Tokyo Ueno Station

You did not ask for this but here are a few of recently purchased books:

  Playlist for the Apocalypse - Rita Dove

  Dream Work - Mary Oliver

  Consolations - David Whyte

  LSD and the Mind of the Universe - Christopher Bache

  The Broken Heart Trilogy - N.K. Jemison

Memorable and/or classics:

(I googled a list of classics  and read most of what came up, but here are the books that came to me at 2 am. They go back to high school through my 20's to adulthood.)

  Beloved - Toni Morrison

  The Doll House - Henrik Ibsen

  In  Cold Blood - Truman Capote

     A Yellow Raft on Blue Water - Michael Dorris

  Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein

  Tess of the D'urbervilles = Thomas Hardy

so many more...but I'll stop there.