Divided
Hofer’s illustrations are deceptively simple. Arranged in a series of repeating four-panel grids, her narrative emerges from her stylized figures, alternatively realistically rendered and disfigured by abstraction. These latter forms give substance to her distorted understanding of her physical appearance. Sometimes these grids are deployed to divide Hofer’s face into four quadrants, effectively rendering her inner conflict and the ways she is torn apart by her illness.
On one such page, an anatomical drawing showing the esophagus and the epiglottis accompanies text explaining the importance for bulimics of choosing food that is “good for puking.” The effect is to convey the seriousness with which Hofer approached the management of her eating disorder, rooting it in an anatomical mapping of the body that rivals a medical textbook.