Hospice is health care that provides for the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of dying patients; its goal is not to cure, but to ease the patient's passage out of life. However, many Americans are unaware of the choices hospice offers. In an effort to foster a broader understanding of hospice, the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the National Hospice Foundation created this remarkable book. They commissioned a series of visual essays from five well-known photographers - challenging each of them to express through his or her art the essence of hospice care. The resulting book is an extraordinary document: it draws the reader inside the full intensity and revelation of the hospice experience. Marilyn Webb's opening essay describes the little-known history of hospice and the increasingly humane attitude toward dying that is now emerging in America. Jane Livingston compares hospice and the art of photography, and Philip Brookman interviews the five artists. A detailed bibliography assists readers seeking hospice resources. But it is the photographers who guide us into the heart of the hospice world. Here are Nan Goldin's penetrating chronicle of patients in New York hospice care; Jack Radcliffe's frank look at the bond between patients and caregivers; luminous meditations on the experiences of hospice patients by Sally Mann; composite images by Kathy Vargas that evoke loss and remembrance; and Jim Goldberg's poignant examination of his own father's death. Woven through these portfolios are the words of the patients, the families, and the care providers. For those who seek to understand hospice, this book creates an unforgettable portrayal; for those already a part of that world, it is a moving testament.