Mark Dion and J. Morgan Puett collaborated with FWM to investigate the often subtle ways in which the nursing uniform, by design, informed notions of identity, professional hierarchy, and labor within the field. The resulting exhibition, RN: The Past, Present and Future of the Nurses’ Uniform, combined historical artifacts and documentation with artist-designed contemporary and futuristic uniforms.
Dion and Puett’s research at the now-defunct Marvin Neitzel Corporation, manufacturer of nursing uniforms, in Troy, New York, led them to historical nursing and medical collections in the Philadelphia area, dating from as early as the nineteenth century. The loaned objects provided a compelling look at the evolution of the nursing profession and uniform itself.
For the present day, Dion and Puett conceived the Ideal Nurses’ Uniform in collaboration with the nursing community through focus groups and an online questionnaire. Dion and Puett mined feedback from retired, practicing, and student nurses to represent the past, present, and future. Then, FWM staff manufactured the Ideal Nurses’ Uniforms within a reconstructed Marvin Neitzel factory inside the gallery.
Dion and Puett imagined that the social role of the nurse will change dramatically in the future, demanding a more sophisticated and innovative uniform design. Drawing on science fiction and new material technologies, the Bioterrorism Nurse, Diagnostic Nurse, Post-Apocalyptic Nurse, and Intergalactic Nurse were the conceptual foundation behind The Nurses’ Uniforms for the Future section. For example, conductive fiber technology embedded in the Diagnostic Nurses’ uniform assessed a patient’s vital signs through touch, like a comforting embrace. The Bioterrorism Nurses’ uniform protected against biological or chemical attacks, enabling nurses to endure danger while administering care to patients. This installation served as an imaginative extension of Dion and Puett’s study of the history of nursing that applied information they gleaned from their interaction with nurses working in the field.
