Our Oath

Text installation, vinyl, 410 x 36”, 2026.

Working together with Becker Medical Library staff, Cheryl Wassenaar designed a vinyl text installation of selections taken from the Hippocratic Oath. The installation wraps around the glass walls of the building’s central staircase, with long lines that stack on top of each other in a value graduation from white to dark blue. Its colorful text punctuates the space and casts floating text shadows into the stairwell with familiar and resonant language, as the medical students study nearby to earn their degree. Each value level represents a section of the oath, portions of the pledges made by the graduating student to their patients, to their professions, to society, and to themselves.