Wellcome Collection 2025 programme highlights

Zines Forever! DIY Publications and Disability Justice

14 March – 14 September 2025
Gallery 3
Free

‘Zines Forever! DIY Publications and Disability Justice’ is a thought-provoking new display at Wellcome Collection exploring the role of DIY publications in sharing and shaping experiences of identity and disability.

Zines are self-published works in which makers share their personal experiences, feelings and ideas. Drawing from Wellcome Collection’s archive of over 1,800 zines themed around health, the display will explore the role of zines as an accessible, visual and sometimes playful means for expressing the complex, messy feelings that can arise in response to being or becoming disabled.

The display will also reveal how the making and sharing of zines can further disability activism and political resistance, serving as a vehicle for community building and mutual support, while questioning what it means for an institution like Wellcome Collection to collect and preserve these often deeply personal, ephemeral items.

1880 THAT: Christine Sun Kim and Thomas Mader

17 April – 16 November 2025
Gallery 2
Free

In spring 2025 Wellcome Collection will present ‘1880 THAT’, the first major London exhibition of artists Christine Sun Kim and Thomas Mader.

Kim and Mader, artists based in Berlin, have been collaborating for over a decade to explore the possibilities and limitations of communication. Their playful and thought-provoking works invite visitors to imagine new opportunities for understanding between signed and spoken languages, challenging social prejudices and hierarchies.

‘1880 THAT’ will bring together new commissions and recent works that use humour and wordplay to explore the idea of language as a home – an essential place of belonging – and what it means to live with the threat of losing one's language. 

The exhibition takes its name from the emphatic expression in American Sign Language ‘THAT’, used to add weight and significance to a statement. It references the 1880 Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf, held in Milan, where policymakers mandated the use of oral education for Deaf people, sidelining and effectively suppressing the use of sign language.

‘1880 THAT’ will reflect on the enduring impact of this pivotal event which has shaped the global Deaf experience for over a century.

Thirst: In Search of Freshwater

26 June 2025 – 1 February 2026
Gallery 1
Free

Opening in June 2025, Wellcome Collection will present ‘Thirst: In Search of Freshwater’, a major exhibition exploring our vital connection with freshwater as a source of life and an essential pillar of good health.

Spanning across time and cultures, from ancient Mesopotamia and Victorian London to contemporary Nepal and Singapore, the exhibition will explore how thirst is experienced by both living beings and land masses.

It will also address the consequences of freshwater’s mismanagement around the world, from the spread of infectious diseases to amplifying the effects of climate change.

Featuring historical artefacts, contemporary materials and thought-provoking artworks, including three new commissions by Raqs Media Collective, Karan Shrestha and Feifei Zhou and Zahirah Suhaimi (SEACoast), ‘Thirst’ will offer moments of loss and challenge, as well as hope, joy and empowerment, reminding us of our individual and collective relationship with water.  

Finger Talk: Cathy Mager

July – October 2025
The Forum
Free

‘Finger Talk’ is a powerful British Sign Language-centred film installation by artist and curator Cathy Mager.

Transforming Wellcome Collection’s Forum, ‘Finger Talk’ will integrate archive film footage of the everyday lives, culture and traditions of the Deaf community over the last century, with contemporary sign-language performance to create a portal into the British Deaf experience.

The artwork seeks to challenge common perceptions of deafness by shifting the narrative from “loss” to “Deaf gain” – an exploration of shared language, heritage and cultural identity within the BSL community.

Accompanying the installation will be a series of Deaf-led talks, events, workshops and performances co-curated by Mager with a group of Deaf collaborators.

Publications

No Ordinary Deaths: A People’s History of Mortality

By Molly Conisbee
1 May 2025

History is written by the A-listers’ deaths – the queens beheaded and archdukes assassinated. We hardly ever learn how ordinary folk met their end and with what consequences, or consider how death has moulded our beliefs, politics and societies through time. 

Historian and bereavement counsellor Molly Conisbee reveals how cycles of dying, death and disposal have shaped the lives of everyday people. This is a fascinating picture of the hopes, fears and wishes of our forebears.

To Exist As I Am: A Doctor’s Notes on Recovery and Radical Acceptance

By Grace Spence Green
June 2025

At the age of 22, Grace Spence Green’s spine was broken at the fourth thoracic vertebra. One day she was in hospital supporting patients, the next she was fighting for her own life. ‘To Exist As I Am’ chronicles her journey from spinal-injury patient to qualified doctor and disabled activist, finding her way back to the wards, and finding her tribe.

This life-affirming reflection reframes disability and questions the value we place on independence in favour of interdependence; the rich networks of care that bind us together, and what love truly looks like. 

Rather than yearning to be ‘fixed’, Grace shows how we might fight for change while embracing a joyous life exactly as we are.

Thirst: In Search of Freshwater

Various Authors
26 June 2025

This urgent, evocative collection of writings celebrates the source of all life: freshwater, our most precious resource. Dive into the depths of a Berlin lake, journey from the Thames to the banks of the Nile, and meet Black Mary, the keeper of a lost 17th-century healing well in London. These are the vital myths and memories that flow through water. 

Contributing writers include Vandana Shiva, Rebecca Solnit and Lucy Jones, who explore ecological despair and resilience, privatisation, pollution — and beauty.

Notes to Editors

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Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00, Thursdays from 10:00 to 20:00, closed Mondays.

Address: Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, NW1 2BE
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About Wellcome Collection

Wellcome Collection is a free museum and library. We believe everyone’s experience of health matters. Through our collections, exhibitions and events, in books and online, we explore the past, present and future of health.

You can find us near Euston station in London and at wellcomecollection.org. Our exhibitions and events are always free. You can use our library and view items from our collections free of charge too – you may just need to book in advance.

Wellcome Collection opened in 2007. We care for many thousands of items relating to health, medicine and human experience, including rare books, artworks, films and videos, personal archives, and objects. We’re part of Wellcome, a charitable foundation supporting science to help build a healthier future for everyone.

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