JOYCE CAMPBELL & LEO ELOESSER
$65.00
Essay by Juan Pascoe
Book design by Juan Pascoe
Digitally printed with letterpress slipcover by Bradley Hutchinson
Co-published with Martín Pescador Press (Tacámbaro, Mexico)
Edition of 80
6″ x 9″
36 pages, richly illustrated with photos
The story of the couple’s life in Mexico from the early 1950s until Eloesser’s death in 1976, and subsequently Joyce’s life until in 2004. Richly illustrated with photos and artworks, including Frida Kahlo’s 1931 portrait of Eloesser, the renowned San Francisco surgeon, which hangs in a place of honor in the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center.
Juan Pascoe of Taller Martín Pescador wrote this eulogy for his neighbor and friend, Joyce Campbell, on her death in 2004. Joyce Campbell and her longtime partner, Dr. Leo Eloesser, lived nearby in the hills of Tacámbaro, Mexico. This is the story of the couple’s life in Mexico from the early 1950s until Eloesser’s death in 1976, and subsequently, Joyce’s life until her death almost 30 years later. The two led complete lives in the San Francisco Bay Area but spent at least half of each year in Tacámbaro where they lived quietly, making music and forging friendships; and there Eloesser ran an informal clinic for community members.
Leo Eloesser is remembered for the important work he did as a surgeon in the first part of the 20th century and, in light of the fascination with the Mexican artist icon, for being Frida Kahlo’s doctor, which began during her stays, along with her husband, Diego Rivera, in San Francisco. Their choices—where they lived, how they spent their time, who they knew—reflect their tastes, but also the times they lived in.
Moving Parts Press undertook this project in gratitude to Dr. Leo Eloesser, who developed a unique surgical procedure in the wake of WWI that helped save the life of the publisher’s husband almost one hundred years later in 2017.