Side Affects is an artist’s book about psycho-pharmacology and the ambiguities of mental illness diagnoses. This book is a fictocritical account of the narrator’s experience with psychiatric medication through annotations to a found book, “Herbs and Medicinal Flowers”. Published in 1973, “Herbs and Medicinal Flowers” contains botanical illustrations dating back to the early 19th century and corresponding descriptions of the plants’ medicinal effects. Side Affects juxtaposes the outdated and unscientific medical advice in “Herbs and Medicinal Flowers” with clinical descriptions of modern psychiatric medications.

This book is a critique of the psychiatric system, it examines the circuity of psychiatry, emphasizing the occasions where treatments can cause suffering as much as illness.