The F Word at the Oxo Tower

In these dark, uncertain times, when tales of violence and human cost head every news bulletin, it's very good to be reminded of human values as well as the costs.

Here is something astonishing. Subjects of violence, perpetrators of violence; relatives who have lost what was precious and criminals who know they have lost something too. The testaments follow a pattern of needing to find hope again; and more: the need to understand the devastation.

"Forgiveness means giving up all hope of a better past.l" A bleak understanding and a profound one; and it allows the future promise.

Marion Partington, sister of Lucy who was one of Fred West's victims, talks of Rosemary West, with her own history of abuse; another, a Second World War airman, who returned to Germany fifty years later to the scene of his crew's murder, found comfort in reconciliation. The parents of Victoria Climbie see their lost child as a memory that must be honoured with appropriate grace.

Forgiveness emerges as a journey, a prayer almost, that need to be renewed again and again in order to restore the light. Don't miss.

• The F Word: Images of Forgiveness is at the.gallery@oxo in Oxo Tower Wharf until Sunday 1 February.