Our story:
Handmade Books. Lasting Memories.
Dr. Darian Goldin Stahl
Embodied Legacies began with a relationship.
When Darian’s sister, Devan, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, she began writing about her experiences of chronic illness. To express her care and empathy for her sister, Darian used her training as a printmaker to transform those writings into handmade books, gifts that could be held, shared, and returned to over time. What began as a deeply personal collaboration became the foundation of a larger practice.
This work evolved into Darian’s MFA in Printmaking and later her PhD in the Humanities, where she developed an arts-based research practice centered on the creation of artists’ books. Her dissertation, Embodied Books: Experiencing the Health Humanities through Artists’ Books, was published in 2024.
In 2021, she founded Embodied Books, a project that brings artists’ books into healthcare and educational spaces. Darian teaches bookmaking to healthcare providers, students, and patients to express their lived experiences of medicine through creative practices.
In 2025, a chance meeting with Paula at a conference led to a new collaboration. Together, they began developing and teaching Narrative Medicine and bookmaking courses for medical students, expanding this work into new contexts and communities.
Embodied Legacies is a natural extension of this practice: a space dedicated to preserving stories, relationships, and experiences through handcrafted books.
Stories are not meant to disappear, they are meant to be held.
Dr. Paula Holmes-Rodman
Paula’s work begins with listening.
As a narrative medicine scholar and anthropologist, she has spent years exploring how stories shape our experiences of illness and care. But this work is also deeply personal. Supporting her autistic sister through ovarian cancer and accompanying her mother through the final months of life shaped how she understands what it means to witness, to advocate, and to hold someone’s story.
Over time, Paula brought this commitment into her professional life. She works across healthcare and community settings to create spaces where people can reflect on illness, caregiving, and end-of-life transitions. Her work has taken shape through collaborations with organizations such as Autism Canada, Ovarian Cancer Canada, and Hospice Calgary, where she has helped develop patient-centered resources and advocacy initiatives.
Her scholarship and writing, published in venues like Intima, the Narrative-Based Medicine Lab, and Ars Medica, reflect an ongoing commitment to the ethical work of listening, particularly for those whose voices are often overlooked within medical systems. This includes the co-development of a Self-Advocacy Guide for cancer patients on the autism spectrum, a project recognized with the King Charles III Coronation Medal.
Through Embodied Legacies, Paula works closely with individuals and families to shape and tell their stories, creating space for reflection and meaning-making at some of life’s most vulnerable moments.