"Nightmare
Scenarios began as an exercise in drawing. I wanted to practise drawing
people. One day I saw a man strap-hanging on the tube and thought he would be
interesting to draw. When I got home I drew what I remembered, invented a
scenario that would explain his carefree demeanour, and the idea for a series
of drawings was born: people depicted in mental-health crisis. Next I drew a
man wearing pyjamas outdoors, and based his scenario on a guy I had met 20
years earlier in a mental hospital. Then I saw a TV program on body dysmorphia
and drew a woman who was suffering from that as well as from agoraphobia.
Gradually I realised that these stories were all around me: on the radio, TV,
in my memory and of course on the internet. And that if I drew enough of them I
would have a book and what an achievement that would be."-- Matt Barrell