57 photographs displayed as part of the immersive exhibit—with textual descriptions of each photograph

“A Sapper’s Abyss” by John T. Gibson

Links to the 57 photographs displayed within the immersive exhibit.

Editor’s Note: Underlined content is hyperlinked (each underlined element is a clickable link), leading to further aspects of the content shared, here. (This convention is consistent, throughout Wordgathering.)

Content Warning: The content and themes in this artwork are for mature audiences only. The content, themes, images, and sounds may be disturbing to some. The content includes graphic representations of real gore, brief nudity, combat, and explosives. All photographic images are from the public domain, made available via The Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552, and have been donated, with permission, from the personal collection of Dr. Jon Bowersox.

Image 1 – A photo was taken of a wooden box containing a burlap bag and several cylinders of munitions.
Image 2 – A mushroom cloud from an explosion is shown roughly 300 meters away. Mountains in the background can be seen through the white smoke and embers.
Image 3 – Triage Photo: A doctor holds a handheld metal detector to the side of an injured service member lying on a cot. Chunks of the flesh are missing from the service member’s right hip. The lower right arm is shown face-down next to the hip and a piece of the arm has been destroyed between the medial wrist and the elbow (shown toward the camera). The skin and muscles were severely damaged. The blast deteriorated the skin and the muscles from the interior arm.
Image 4 – An MRAP is experiencing an explosion from underneath the hull. The fiery cloud of black smoke is lifting the five-ton vehicle off the ground and projecting out the sides.
Image 5 – A small black explosive device partially buried in the sand.
Image 6 – A Combat Engineer or “Sapper” holding a rusted metal charge with ignition wires attached to it.
Image 7 – A small square of duct tape and wires being cut open by one service member’s multi-tool. Meanwhile, another service member appears to be instructing the service member while holding a knife.
Image 8 – Two soda cans wrapped in duct tape with subtle wires coming out of them. This is an example of how small and how easily made an IED can be.
Image 9 – Four service members carry an injured service member on a stretcher toward a helicopter prepared to medically evacuate the injured service member.
Image 10 – Triage Photo: An injured service member lies on their back while the picture is taken from their feet up. The service member’s left foot is completely missing and the right fibula is sticking out of the service member’s skin. There is a large bruise just inferior to the exit point. (Same service member as in photos 11 and 25.) The toes of the right foot are covered in blood. The right foot shows burns between the second and third toes. There is a severe laceration that reaches from the superior-middle foot down to the posterior heel that shows the torn and damaged muscles in the foot (including bones).
Image 11 – Triage Photo: A doctor is holding a pair of trauma scissors in their right hand and the service member’s damaged lower leg/foot in their left hand. The service member’s left foot is charred and disfigured beyond recognition from an IED blast. (Same service member as in photos 10 and 25.) The toes maintained some form, but the foot has been burned and destroyed. The skin has been damaged from the middle of the lower leg to where the foot is destroyed. There is burnt muscle and fat that is falling dispersed where the foot is supposed to be and where the medial ankle should be.
Image 12 – Triage Photo: The photo is taken from an angle that shows only the lower leg. The lower leg of the service member was blown off and there is an incision around the wound. Muscle and fat are leaking out of the wound. There are two medical personnel. One is slightly propping up the leg, close to the knee; another is holding the wound with their left hand, while holding a pair of trauma scissors and (an unidentified object) with their right hand.
Image 13 – Triage Photo: The service member is lying on their back without clothes and the torso is fully covered. Both the lower right and lower left legs were blown off in a blast where all that remains is the legs just superior to the knees. The left leg has a wide laceration that stretches from the superior-medial anterior leg to the distal and lateral lower leg. The muscles of the quadriceps are exposed in the laceration. There are burn marks and smaller lacerations on the lateral side of the left leg. The right leg suffered severe burning through the entirety of the anterior leg. There is minimal skin remaining between the hip and the inferior upper leg (where the blast removed the leg). The exposed muscles and fat were severely charred and burned, throughout.
Image 14 – Triage Photo: The picture is taken of a service member’s face while the service member is lying on their back. The service member has tape that attaches an IV to their forehead and more tape to keep the tube attached to the right side of their head. There is tape covering the service member’s eyes. There is a circular puncture just superior to the left eye around the eyebrow. The service member has tape just below the nose that’s used to catch blood. The service member has burned and bloodied skin just below his lower lip and has a hole in his mouth just below the lower lip. The doctor is using their right hand to push their fingers through the hole and using their left hand to hold the chin in place. There is a tube inserted into the right side of the service member’s mouth.
Image 15 – Triage Photo: A service member lies on a medical table. The picture is taken from the perspective of the service member’s left side as they are lying down on a bed/stretcher. There is a blanket covering the service member up to about the nipple area with the skin showing on their left lateral side, and the left arm is completely exposed. The service member has numerous cords, tubes, and IVs that are attached to their left arm. The lateral left rib cage to the lateral hip area has yellowing skin. The service member’s mouth is covered with a mask and a tube that is connected to the mask. The service member’s eyes are taped closed.
Image 16 – Triage Photo: A service member lies on a medical table surrounded by four doctors. Only the service member’s legs are shown. The right leg has a deep laceration just superior to the lateral side of the knee. Inferior to the knee, the leg has been blown off. Dark, burned muscle is shown in disarray. The left leg shows muscle burns dispersed throughout the exterior leg superior and inferior to the knee. There is a medical professional holding the foot.
Image 17 – Two MRAPs are in the desert next to a Hesco barrier. They are staged to be ready for a convoy.
Image 18 – The driver’s side of an MRAP. The steering wheel is bent 45 degrees on the half that would be facing the driver, seemingly from the impact to the driver.
Image 19 – Three service members assess the damage to an MRAP after an IED explosion. You can see several MRAPs in the distance along the road behind them. The vehicle’s rear axle has been separated from the rest of the vehicle and there appears to be blood on the desert sand next to the passenger side door.
Image 20 – Six service members offload a stretcher from a helicopter. Several wires and monitors are lying on top of the ambulatory service number.
Image 21 – A blurry photograph was taken at the moment of an IED explosion. In front of the smoke plume roughly 100 meters away, a service number stands with his rifle and is falling toward the side of the road.
Image 22 – A service member stands next to several munitions, ranging from two to four feet in length. Unexploded ammunition is often armed to an ignition device and used as the main charge for IEDs.
Image 23 – Light shimmers through a thick cloud of an explosion going off in a desert.
Image 24 – Two service members, each on one knee, presenting a typical “Suicide Vest” on the ground. White cloth with seven red gelatinous squares of homemade explosives are attached with a red detonation cord.
Image 25 – Triage Photo: (Same service member as in photos 10, 11, 25.) The picture shows the service member’s legs below the knee. The lower right leg is twisted at about the middle of the lower leg with a broken right fibula and a broken right tibia. See pictures 10 and 11 for analysis on feet.
Image 26 – A civilian stands in awe next to the fiery wreckage of a burned-out sedan. IDs do not discern who its victims are.
Image 27 – A ”burned-out” green jeep with the doors partially hanging off of the hinge.
Image 28 – Triage Photo: A service member is lying on a gurney. Their left ankle is broken at a 135-degree angle, outward. Bones, tendons, and ligaments are visible.
Image 29 – A service member is assembling a long main charge to the wooden initiation device. This is a photo of how Combat Engineers or “Sappers” often make IEDs in training to better understand the capacity of the devices, as well as the methodology behind their design.
Image 30 – A Sapper, standing in front of a clay wall in the desert holding a metal detector as he vigilantly examines a blue bicycle approximately three meters away from him.
Image 31 – A surveillance photo of a blue pickup truck, two adults, and two children standing on a desert road. One adult is standing 20-30 meters away from the other adult with a shovel and the two children.Four red circles with white caption bubbles annotate this photo for use in training combat engineers. From right to left the bubbles say: “IED (main charge) EMPLACER WITH BAG,” “IED (small charge) IN BURLAP SACK,” IED (ignition device) EMPLACER WITH SHOVEL, “TWO CHILDREN”.This photo is used for training purposes to depict the process of burying an IED in the ground. One adult will dig a hole in the ground and set the initiation device, the other adult will come over and put the main charge in the hole and quickly bury it. The children are there as a cover from drone strikes and as a way to teach the next generation of rebels.
Image 32 – A cell phone and a 9-volt battery wired to two 12-inch pieces of PVC pipe, duct taped together and filled with plastic explosives.
Image 33 – Three service members assess the damage of a blown-out MRAP. The entire engine block is missing as well as the front axle of the vehicle. Tires and car parts lie haphazardly on the ground around them as a pool of red antifreeze leaks from the vehicle. (Same service member as in photo 34, 35, and 36.)
Image 34 – Several MRAPs are lined up in a convoy formation on a road. A large engine block lies smoldering on the side of the road. (Same service member as in photos 33, 35, and 36.)
Image 35 – Four service members assess the damage from an IED explosion. Car parts lie haphazardly across the desert sands. This photo was taken from the perspective of the engine block 20 meters away. (Same service member as in photos 33, 34, and 36.)
Image 36 – The front end of an MRAP with its doors open and the engine block missing. (Same service member as in photo 33, 34, and 35.)
Image 37 – An instructional textbook photo of the difference between what a bullet does upon encountering a human femur versus what shrapnel does when encountering a human femur. While the bullet pierces through the flesh along with bone, shrapnel tears through the flash, dragging tissue and bone along with it, leaving any remains splintered.
Image 38 – Triage Photo: The picture of a service member lying down shows the service member from the mid-chest to the head. The left side of the head has severe lacerations that caused the skin to peel off from the region around the left eye socket to the left side of the chin and the skin to the left past where the ear should be. The ear is no longer attached to the ear canal and is dangling from the peeled skin. There are abrasions along the left anterior neck and a puncture on the anterior neck a few inches above the collarbone. There are intense burns and bleeding that cover the right side of the neck.
Image 39 – A service member sits in the machine gun turret of an MRAP, while another service member stands on the outside of the vehicle communicating to the other.
Image 40 – A white Toyota two-door SUV is bullet-ridden with all the windows broken. A service member aims his weapon into the back seat, checking to see if there are any living persons inside.
Image 41 – Triage Photo: Different angle of same service member shown in photos 46, 47, and 50.
Image 42 – Three service members face toward a helicopter in the desert.
Image 43 – A service member lies on a hospital bed with a medical gown. He is surrounded by tubes. The picture is focused around the purple heart that is pinned to his medical gown.
Image 44 – Triage Photo: A service member’s mangled left arm with the hand partially attached.
Image 45 – Four large munitions shells are connected by wires to a landmine among rubble and sandbags.
Image 46 – Triage Photo: Different angle of same service member shown in photos 41, 47, and 50.
Image 47 – Triage Photo: Different angle of same service member shown in photos 41, 46, and 50.
Image 48 – Five service members carry a wounded teammate to safety through a sandstorm.
Image 49 – A service member is lying on a stretcher unconscious and covered in blood, while two other service members attempt to load him onto a vehicle.
Image 50 – Triage Photo: Different angle of same service member shown in photos
41, 46, and 47.
Image 51 – A small black explosive device partially buried in the sand.
Image 52 – A combat engineer leads a patrol of infantry, with his rifle behind his back and a metal detector in his hand. He relies on the protection of the rifleman next to him as much as the rifleman relies on the combat engineer.
Image 53 – A combat engineer manipulates a nest of red and white wiring covered by a bush. The empty battery terminals indicate that the power source has been removed from the device—(theoretically) rendering it innate.
Image 54 – Three Combat Engineers, with rifles behind their backs and metal detectors in their hands, clear a road. The service members walked staggered and spread apart from each other, to ensure the entire road was thoroughly removed, and also to limit the number of casualties—if an explosive were to be initiated.
Image 55 – Two service members support each other as they both lie on separate stretchers. The two grasp each others’ hands while they grimace and scream in utter agony. Black boxes have been put over their eyes in this photograph, to protect their identities.
Image 56 – Eight service members carry a stretcher onto a helicopter. The service member on the stretcher is not visible in the picture, due to the number of tubes and blankets covering them.
Image 57 – A medical helicopter waits for a rescue signal on the helipad at the base.

About Artist

John T. Gibson served as a Combat Engineer with the United States Marine Corps on the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). He received a degree in Social Work from Syracuse University in May 2020, and plans to pursue a graduate degree in art therapy and counseling. John is a disability advocate. As an artist, he works across a variety of mediums. John believes strongly in the healing power of self-expression through any means. “A Sapper’s Abyss” has been described as “a performance piece”; however, John prefers to think of this work as an immersive exhibit. He hopes that the exhibit engages the audience artfully and instructionally, while the audience’s tactile and other experiences inform and embed themselves in the exhibit’s effectiveness. John’s artwork can be found on Instagram @ner.neff.art.

“A Sapper’s Abyss” by John T. Gibson

About Artist

Additional Information