The area around the Natural Science building on the University of Western Ontario campus is constantly bustling with students leaving and boarding busses. This hub of transportation gets a lot of foot traffic, but it is easy to over look some of the buildings between the busy Natural Sciences building and the utterly menacing Social Sciences fortress.

Tucked away in this gap, is the entrance to the Medical Sciences building (figure 1). The building itself is in the neo-Gothic or Collegiate Gothic style which is typical to the campus. The carved stone arch over the two heavy wooden doors makes a stately impression, though I am sure they often go unnoticed. Once through those doors, one finds oneself in a low-ceilinged foyer, seemingly dark in comparison to the outside. It is a space that people don’t seem to linger in for very long, unless seeking shelter from rain, or perhaps waiting to be picked up from class. Once the eyes adjust to the yellowish light, you are met with an utterly perplexing mural (figure 2).

This part mural, part sculpture has so many different design elements that it is hard to initially interpret what you are seeing. One thing is clear though, it dominates the foyer. The foyer is a relatively small room which has doors leading deeper into the building, and really seems like an excuse to house the wall piece. Without knowing about the artist or whether there was a figurative design meant to be discovered, I personally felt compelled to get as close as possible to the work. It was an exciting realization when I saw that the mural is not only made of ceramics. In fact, details are made not only by sculpting, but also with stone, coloured and painted glass, and on one case with nails (figure 3). The sheer earthiness and hand-made quality of the piece is both impressive and intimidating. Despite its earthy-brown colours, it refuses to go un-noticed. Details of the work may go un-noticed by the weary passer-by, but the presence of the piece is un-deniable. I found myself reaching out to touch the work, which seemed utterly scandalous coming from a visual arts background. But no alarms went off; no stern gallery guards emerged to reprimand me (only another student sheltering from the rain gave me a particularly dubious look). The physicality of the work seems to ask to be investigated, as well as to be used in some sense.
 
Upon closer investigation, it becomes clear what the work has to do with Medical science. The patterns and shapes in the work slowly emerge as representations of chemical bonds, cellular structures, and what could possibly represent bacterial growth.

Though the placard next to the mural offers only the name of the artist, Jordi Bonet, after some online research, finding some background information on him was quite easy. Jordi Bonet was a Catalan man who settled in Quebec in1954. One of his most notable sculptural works is the glass mural in the chapel at J.F.K airport. He specialized in ceramics, murals, and other forms of public artwork. His hands-on approach to his work speaks to the arts and crafts philosophy about handmade creations, while the actual result is abstract. Bonet’s official website is in French, which for our bilingual readers should prove most informative, but it has specific English sections that are very interesting. In my research, I also came across the title of the work A Mi Padre, Medico, on a list of his completed public works on this Montreal-based website.

Although the mural is the main point of interest, the other three walls are also adorned. On the wall opposite of the Bonet mural is a carved quotation by Francis Bacon entitled “The Scientific Mind” (figure 4). The quote starts with gilded letters reminiscent of illuminated manuscripts. The Font used in the carving is also antiquated and reminiscent of medieval writing. This wall piece is contradicted stylistically by the other two walls of the foyer, both of which have raised oxidized bronze reliefs of two notable figures with a history at the University of Western Ontario. On the wall to the left of the quotation is the likeness of G. Edward Hall, a previous University President and pioneer in aviation physiology. On the other, there is the profile of James Bertram Collip, a past dean of the medical sciences faculty and a pioneer in biochemistry (figure 5). All together, the four walls make for a rather disjointed design. This disjointed feeling also occurs between the floor and ceiling, where the nicely tiled floor and walls meet the white-foam squares that make the hanging ceiling.

When I ventured into the space for this report, I had no idea where the Medical Sciences building was, let alone what artistic treasure it held. Without my map, I would have been lost trying to find it. As a visual art student, my wanderings rarely encompass more than the modern simplicity of the John Labbatt Visual Art Centre building. My overall impression of the small space is an indifferent one. Although I was impressed by the mural, I couldn’t help but feel like the other wall ornaments clashed with one another. I feel as though Jordi Bonet’s work deserves a more public, loftier home on campus.