Books

Someone's Missing...and I Think it's Me

OUR GREAT ADVENTURE WITH DEMENTIA

Combining captivating prose and beautiful imagery, Someone’s Missing…and I Think It’s Me by Joan Gaustad tells the story of an artist couple navigating the mysteries and terrors of early-onset dementia with wild humor and deep love. This memoir has been nominated for the Library of Virginia Award in Nonfiction.

Someone’s Missing… is a visual memoir with breathtaking, original art throughout. It is comprised of paintings, drawings, and photographs by Gaustad, her late husband, painter, Jerry Donato, and artist friends. A small zine, Not Missing, which transcribes the diary pages and cursive writing is tucked in the back of the book.

Though Gaustad initially set out to write a guide for individuals and families facing the terrifying world of brain-illnesses, Someone’s Missing…. is ultimately a love story that chronicles life and loss and what was learned along the way.

“It is often said that memory makes us human, so those who are always ‘in the moment’ are sometimes seen as missing. What actually makes us unique as human beings is our ability to project, not only into the past and future but into each other. To see my beautiful, brain-tangled husband look at a child, a tree, a fellow patient, or me, was to be awed by our infinite capacity for empathy.”

Even with dementia’s undeniable sorrow and loss, there is surprising, heartening beauty to be found, as Someone’s Missing…and I Think It’s Me reveals.

House Hold

House Hold is a collaborative softback book with photographer Michael Lease. Images of Gaustad’s house and studio, with text on mylar inserts, tell of lives and their losses, with humor and love. The book became a conversation between the two artists about what our homes, our houses hold; our stories.

House Hold is available in-store at the ICA at VCU.

RVA ART

RVA ART is a small zine with images of the protest art on the base of the removed Robert E. Lee statue on Monument Avenue, in Richmond, Virginia, the former capital of the confederacy. The little book is a memento of the gorgeous graffiti and memorials and a story of how the site became Marcus David Peter’s Circle, a healing gathering place for all.

RVA ART is available in-store at the ICA at VCU and Boketto.