Eyes by Hand

A personal and intimate view of the craft of eye-making.

This is a book about artificial eyes—about the artisans and artists who make them, and about the life-changing and sometimes life-saving experience of wearing them, as author Dan Roche has done for 15 years. Eye making is done by hand, for one person at a time, by a very small number of ocularists (fewer than 200 in the US); it is a slow, intricate, and unusually intimate process of molding, fitting, and painting that brings ocularist and patient together for many hours or even days.

In Eyes by Hand, Roche describes the craft that goes into the making of an eye that looks uncannily real, as well as the psychological and emotional healing that such service brings to someone who has suffered the very visible trauma of eye loss—a loss that can go to the heart of self-identity.

In an engaging, frankly fascinating fashion, Roche captures the intricacies of a profession whose techniques and culture have been remarkably consistent for 200 years. He explores, too, how that profession may now be facing a digital transformation in the form of scan-print-mail possibilities. Such a change might make prosthetic eyes more easily and cheaply available, though it may also risk the aesthetic qualities and intimate connection fundamental to the process of healing.Preface
1 Repulse
K. Potter, Eye Wearer
2 Removal
Dave (father) and Vaune (daughter) Bulgarelli, Ocularists
3 Impression
Phil Cenci, Eye Wearer
4 Painting
Anna Boyd Jefferson, Ocularist
5 Glass
Sebastian Fredette, Eye Wearer
6 Illusion
Nelly James and Francesca Gelai, Ocularists
7 Closer
8 Care
Dan Roche, Eye Wearer
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index“Combining historical analysis and anthropological insight with a journalist’s flair for feature writing, Dan Roche’s new book is a superb contribution to histories of prosthetics and the human stories embodied in their design.”
—David Serlin, author of Window Shopping with Helen Keller: Architecture and Disability in Modern Culture

“Eyes by Hand is an engrossing journey through a relatively unknown area in which art intersects with medicine.”
—Stephen McLeod, MD, CEO of the American Academy of Ophthalmology

“Like a glass eye, Eyes by Hand is artfully constructed and unique. A groundbreaking contribution to disability studies that demonstrates the power of personal writing.”
—Jeannie Vanasco, author of The Glass Eye

“An engaging insight into the lives of artificial eye users and makers past and present. Dan Roche’s thoughtful approach provides a new model for autoethnographic academic writing.”
—Ryan Sweet, author of Prosthetic Body Parts in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture; designer of Legless in London, the board gameDan Roche is the author of Love’s Labors: A Story of Marriage and Divorce and Great Expectation: A Father’s Diary. He teaches creative writing, journalism, and literature at Le Moyne College, in Syracuse, NY.