How to Wash a Body

Authors

  • Staci Bu Shea

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Keywords:

natural death care, grief care, death doula, ritual

Abstract

It is common to learn about natural body care and bathing rituals through end-of-life doula training. At the time of my training in 2020/2021, I hadn’t washed a dead body yet, so I practiced what I was learning on my partner and later described the event in “How to Wash a Body.” The literary examples I’ve come across so far that recount this act of care often describe the uncanny aspects of encountering the loved one’s body becoming corpse. I wanted to emphasize the reverse: the current aliveness of my partner, awareness and forms of preparedness for my/another’s death, and how learning and performing such acts of care like washing a beloved’s body is an integral part of grieving and reconnection in the chain of events following their death. 

Author Biography

Staci Bu Shea

Staci Bu Shea (Miami, 1988) is a curator, writer and death doula based in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Broadly, Bu Shea convenes with others over aesthetic, critical, and poetic practices of social reproduction and care work, as well as its manifestations in interpersonal relationships, daily life, community organizing, and institutional practice. Bu Shea’s debut publication Dying Livingly is released in 2025 with Sternberg Press as part of the Solution Series edited by Ingo Niermann. Bu Shea was curator at Casco Art Institute of Working for the Commons (Utrecht, 2017–2022) and co-curator with Barbara Hammer of Evidentiary Bodies at Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art (New York, 2017). Bu Shea holds an MA from the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, 2016). stacibushea.info / stacibushea.care

References

Halifax, Joan. 2020. “Strong Back, Soft Front.” Dropping In (podcast). https://www.eomega.org/audio/strong-back-soft-front.

Lee, Li-Young. 1986. Rose: Poems. BOA Editions. Los Olivos, CA: Bookslinger.

Published

26-02-2025

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 2 (2024): With the Dead: Performance Philosophy, Dying, and Grief

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Articles

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Copyright (c) 2024 Staci Bu Shea

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