The photograph, titled Emma in the Character of a Nun (Interview with Jane Bruton), depicts a nun’s habit worn by a model and printed with excerpts from an interview conducted by the artist with Jane Bruton, a pioneering HIV nurse who served as Ward Sister on Broderip Ward, the dedicated AIDS ward at Middlesex Hospital during the late 1980s and 1990s. Bruton later held several senior nursing roles in HIV care and is currently Clinical Research Manager at the Patient Experience Research Centre at Imperial College London. Her reflections on caring for patients during the AIDS crisis form the textual foundation of the work, recounting the emotional and ethical realities faced by healthcare workers at a time when stigma, fear, and uncertainty surrounded the disease.

Hummler prints fragments of this testimony directly onto the surface of the garment, allowing Bruton’s words to become both material and image. The use of the nun’s habit references the historical origins of modern nursing, which developed in part from religious orders whose members were among the first organised caregivers in Europe. In the photograph, the garment becomes a symbolic bridge between spiritual devotion and the ethics of care that shaped hospital practice during the AIDS crisis.

The work also reflects on the complex relationship between queer communities and religious institutions. During the epidemic, hospitals often became spaces where patients who had experienced exclusion elsewhere could find compassion and solidarity. In her conversation with Bruton, Hummler reflects on how nursing teams attempted to create environments in which patients could feel dignity, comfort, and companionship during the final stages of life. These histories inform the visual language of the image and its placement within the chapel.

Installed inside the Fitzrovia Chapel, once the spiritual centre of Middlesex Hospital, the work engages directly with the architecture and memory of the site. The photograph is presented as a single framed image placed on an easel near the altar, creating a quiet and contemplative encounter within the chapel’s historic interior. Rather than functioning as a monumental memorial, In Memoriam invites viewers to reflect on the individuals and acts of care that shaped the community surrounding the hospital during the AIDS crisis.