Nightshade is a restrained and poetic exploration of a particularly difficult and confronting subject – domestic violence and coercive control. Wendy Catling examines her mother’s experiences during her 20-year relationship with Catling’s father.

The publication which traverses the many addresses lived at by the artist and her parents and uses a mixture of archival and contemporary imagery interspersed with brief snatches of memories related by Catling’s mother, has been sensitively designed by Kim Mumm Hansen to form a darkly moving and compelling personal narrative with universal resonance.

As striking as these images and words are, the thing that strikes me most about this book is its generosity. Ironically, the generosity comes from the very careful and paired back approach. This approach gives readers something very special and very important – space to observe and reflect – not only on the story being told here, but how they may relate to it.  This delicate balance of silences, images and words speak to some of the complexities of speaking truth to experience. They embody the meaning of bearing witness as both seeing and testifying to what is seen.

Dr Melissa Miles

Associate Dean, Research
Monash University