Advice from My 80-Year-Old Self

“The voices gathered here display incredible wit, sincerity, and generosity; we are lucky to be able to listen to them.” —Artforum

If you had the opportunity to meet your eighty-year-old self, what do you think she/he would tell you?

That is the question artist Susan O’Malley, who was herself to die far too young, asked more than a hundred ordinary people of every age, from every walk of life. She then transformed their responses into vibrant text-based images.

From a prompt to do things that matter to your heart, to a reminder that it’s okay to have sugar in your tea, these are calls to action and words to live by—heartfelt, sometimes humorous, and always fiercely compassionate. This stirring celebration of our collective humanity unveils the wisdom we hold inside ourselves right now.

“Everyone, regardless of age, can take something away from this uplifting work.” —Real Simple