Unseen - by Joanne Bloch (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

After artist Joanne Bloch experienced serious sight loss, she felt called to explore what it means to be visually impaired in our society. Unseen gives both her own reflections and those of 20 other South Africans, each told in the unique voice of its contributor. The conversations and stories in Unseen reveal many hidden complexities. They describe sensory and bodily adaptations, as well as the systemic barriers to basic rights that are built into our society. They show the constant need to counter ignorance and hostility and describe the social discomfort and isolation that often comes with visual impairment. Yet these are not narratives of passive victims. Instead, they are idiosyncratic, compelling expressions of courage, humour, solidarity and resilience. Most of all, they reflect a determination to live a rich and fulfilling life despite every difficulty.

Review Quotes

"In her moving personal account of sight loss, combined with interviews with a range of partially sighted and non-sighted South Africans, Joanne Bloch presents a devastating indictment of the systemic barriers to access and accomplishment that confront people living with disabilities in our society." -- Kobus Moolman (award-winning writer and academic)

"Unseen stands out because it treats partial sight as the complex, lived reality it is rather than a footnote between seeing and blindness, and by letting each contributor speak in an unfiltered voice, Bloch turns personal testimony into something closer to a public record..." -- Ian Langtree, Disabled World

About the Author

For most of her adult life, Joanne Bloch was an exhibiting visual artist. Her work was shown on both solo and group exhibitions, including the 2013 Venice Biennale. In parallel with her art practice, Joanne worked as a freelance writer, specialising in human rights-related and educational materials. In 2011, six months into her PhD in Fine Art, Joanne was faced with irreversible sight loss. After she completed her PhD, her deteriorating vision forced her to abandon art- making and concentrate entirely on writing. Joanne has always been especially interested in life writing, and worked as interviewer, photographer and writer on several interview-based books for young adults and children. Her new book Unseen emerged as a response to her own experience of visual impairment, a growing awareness of the ignorance, stigma and discrimination confronting visually impaired South Africans and a strong desire for marginalized voices to be more widely heard. She lives in Cape Town.