In 2005 Damien Hirst began photographing every dispensing pharmacy in the Greater London area. Shooting both the individual pharmacists behind their counters and the exterior views of the city’s 1,856 chemists, the project took over a decade to complete. The images are brought together in their entirety in this extraordinary ten-volume artist’s book, which presents a portrait of the city through the people and places that prescribe the medicines we take on a habitual and daily basis.

Hirst’s career-long obsession with the minimalist aesthetics employed by pharmaceutical companies—the cool colors and simple geometric forms—first manifested in his series of Medicine Cabinets, conceived in 1988 while still at Goldsmiths College. For his 1992 installation Pharmacy Hirst recreated an entire chemist within the gallery space, stating: “I’ve always seen medicine cabinets as bodies, but also like a cityscape or civilization, with some sort of hierarchy within it. [Pharmacy] is also like a contemporary museum. In a hundred years it will look like an old apothecary.” Pharmacy London similarly embodies the artist’s realization of an “idea of a moment in time.” The publication also, however, reads as a distilled expression of Hirst’s continuing belief in the near-religious role medicine plays in our society.

Limited edition of 750 boxed sets signed and numbered by the artist

Vol. 1
Barking & Dagenham, Barnet, Bexley
340 pages

Vol. 2
Brent, Bromley, Camden
416 pages

Vol. 3
City of London, Croydon, Ealing
324 pages

Vol. 4
Enfield, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith & Fulham
420 pages

Vol. 5
Haringey, Harrow, Havering
344 pages

Vol. 6
Hillingdon, Hounslow, Islington, Kensington & Chelsea
420 pages

Vol. 7
Kingston upon Thames, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton
380 pages

Vol. 8
Newham, Redbridge, Richmond upon Thames
340 pages

Vol. 9
Southwark, Sutton, Tower Hamlets
436 pages

Vol. 10
Wandsworth, Westminster
380 pages

Estimated availability date: August 2024.
Pre-order (without advance payment) possible.