Skip to content
Measles | May 2024

Mary Beth Heffernan: From the Studio to the Hospital Ward

Occidental College professor Mary Beth Heffernan photographs health care worker Roseline Biego, R.N. at ELWA II ETU (Ebola treatment unit) in Monrovia, Liberia on Sunday, March 1, 2015. The photos will be used in Professor Heffernan’s PPE Portrait Project. (Photo by Marc Campos, Occidental

Mary Beth Heffernan, a Los Angeles based artist, brings together corporeality and imagery through various media. Her work examines deep questions about how bodies and their experiences are represented in digital and physical forms.

Image of Mary Beth Heffernan.
Mary Beth Heffernan
Marc Campos

One of Heffernan’s most notable projects, the PPE Portrait Project, began in 2014 to humanize the protective gear of Ebola workers in Liberia. By placing portraits on protective equipment, the project helped mitigate fear and foster connections between healthcare workers and patients. The initiative gained international attention and was adapted for COVID-19 response, impacting healthcare settings worldwide, including major institutions like Stanford Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.

During her 2016-17 residency at The Huntington Library as part of the PAC/LA Contemporary Artist Grant, Heffernan considered the purpose and implications of an 18th-century anatomy textbook bound in human skin. This inquiry highlighted the ethical and historical narratives bound within medical artifacts.

Heffernan’s work is supported by several prestigious awards and grants, including the COLA Master Artist Fellowship and contributions from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation and the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. Her art is featured in significant collections such as The Huntington Library, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Royal College of Nursing-Great Britain Archive.

Photo of Health care workers make their rounds as they care for patients, including two new patients, in the ELWA II ETU (Ebola treatment unit), Monrovia, Liberia on Monday, March 9, 2015. Occidental College professor Mary Beth Heffernan’s PPE Portrait Project involves creating wearable portraits of the health care workers who must wear PPE (personal protective equipment) when working with patients. (Photo by Marc Campos, Occidental College Photographer), 2015.
Health care workers make their rounds as they care for patients, including two new patients, in the ELWA II ETU (Ebola treatment unit), Monrovia, Liberia on Monday, March 9, 2015. Marc Campos, Occidental College Photographer

Through a large number of her projects, Heffernan consistently demonstrates how art can influence public health and patient care by adding layers of empathy and understanding to clinical environments.

She is a Professor of Sculpture, Photography, and Interdisciplinary Art at Occidental College, with a BFA from Boston University and an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. To learn more about Heffernan and to view her work, visit marybethheffernan.com.

Health care workers in the ELWA II ETU (Ebola treatment unit), Monrovia, Liberia on Friday, March 6, 2015. Occidental College professor Mary Beth Heffernan’s PPE Portrait Project involves creating wearable portraits of the health care workers who must wear PPE (personal protective equipment) when working with patients. (Photo by Marc Campos, Occidental College Photographer)
Occidental College professor Mary Beth Heffernan’s PPE Portrait Project involves creating wearable portraits of the health care workers who must wear PPE (personal protective equipment) when working with patients. (Photo by Marc Campos, Occidental College Photographer)
Image of a painting called Blue.
The Blue series (2011) consists of ten large-scale cyanotypes using the remnants of a cut suit and transparent dress as a “negative” to make the fossil-like photograms. Part gesture drawing, part primitive x-ray, the Blue series embodies the conundrum of those split by death. The physical touch necessary to make the contact print is registered as a negative image, instantiating the subject’s simultaneous presence, and absence.
Image of a painting called Blue.
Image by Mary Beth Heffernan called Smile
Smile was created for the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs’ Individual Artist Award (COLA) in 2010. If the viewer is drawn to the convergence of the splatters, and places herself in the imaginary explosive center of the drawing, the wall transforms from an index of violence into an anamorphic wall of words reading, “smile.”
Image of a photo by Mary Beth Heffernan called Replete.
Replete 3 Completed: 1995-99 Details: Poultry meat and skin. Gelatin Silver Print. 20″ x 24″ Partial but present, replete and incomplete, The Replete Series grapples with the complexity of corporeality as a site bound up in living bodies, breathing texts, and pictures that prick.
Image of a photo by Mary Beth Heffernan called Replete.

*All images and information is © Mary Beth Heffernan unless otherwise stated.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this interview are those of the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Public Health Landscape or Valent BioSciences, LLC.

More from Measles | May 2024

Dr. Samuel Katz: The Man Who Helped Conquer Measles

Dr. Samuel Katz made monumental contributions to pediatric health and vaccinations before his passing on October 31, 2022, at the age of 95. His career was proof that one dedicated individual can have a profound impact on global public health.

Born on May 29, 1927, in Manchester, NH, Samuel Katz initially studied journalism at Dartmouth College, but quickly switched to medicine after a stint in the Navy during World War II. Moving on to his medical studies at Harvard Medical School, he was drawn into the world of virology under the tutelage of John Enders, a Nobel Laureate. This collaboration marked the beginning of Katz’s lifelong battle against infectious diseases, which included the development of the measles vaccine.

Understanding Measles

Check out this video by CBC on one of the world’s most contagious but preventable diseases. Learn how measles attacks the body and what makes it so contagious.

Europe and the U.S. Battle Measles – Again

Initially, doctors in the Tuzla Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina thought the rash on young Imran’s* stomach could be scarlet fever. Or maybe it was Kawasaki disease. As reported by Eurosurveillance, that was in early December 2023. By Christmas, four of Imran’s preschool classmates had been admitted to the hospital with measles. By mid-January 2024, another epidemiologically linked case – again originally misdiagnosed as the much less contagious scarlet fever – presented in a neighboring canton. Two more quickly followed. Between the last week of December and the middle of February, the Balkan nation had reported 141 new measles cases.

Barts Health Trust’s Dr. David Harrington said the misdiagnoses should not be unexpected.

“Many front-line clinicians won’t have seen measles for several years,” he told Medscape UK. “So good education and training and collaboration between public health and infection specialists with those in primary and emergency care is key.”

Protect Your Child Against Measles

This infographic from the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital shares with you what you need to know, and do, to protect your child from measles.