An exhibition organized by the National Academy of Sciences

Foreword by Harvey V. Fineberg, MD PhD
and
Curator’s Statement by J.D. Talasek
(from the exhibition catalogue, available for download for free)

Foreword
- Harvey V. Fineberg, MD PhD
President, Institute of Medicine
No physician forgets his first exposure to a cadaver or her first hand in surgery. The complexity and elegance of the human structure are overwhelming: How does it work mechanically, as separate parts and as a whole? What makes it function in health, and how does it go wrong in disease? What parts are critical to what biological purposes? For most clinicians in training, learning from living tissue and learning from anatomical illustrations go hand in hand. For the neophyte, visualizing anatomic structure is typically easier from the rendered image than from the human body—art can represent reality more vividly than life represents itself.

In art, as in biology and medicine, anatomic representation can be a point of departure rather than an endpoint. The anatomic form becomes more than an illustration of living tissue; it reveals an intersection of life and imagination and provokes us to think anew about who we are and of what we are made. The artists who created the images in Visionary Anatomies expose us to our inner selves, highlight selected parts and juxtapose (and sometimes rearrange) the physical elements within and around us. The works draw from ancient anatomy and from modern imaging technology. Individually fascinating, they are yet more powerful as a collection, demanding repeatedly that we take a fresh look at ourselves, our inner being, and our place in the world.

The National Academies are pleased to sponsor this exhibit and grateful to the artists and to our Curator of Exhibitions, JD Talasek, for making it possible.

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Curator’s Statement
- J.D. Talasek
Throughout history, the education and understanding of the human anatomy have been directly influenced by our ability to visually depict the body's ingenious design. Since the earliest recorded dissections, anatomists have worked with artists to advance the study of medicine through detailed, and even beautiful, renderings, the very sight of which are intriguing, not only due to the inner workings of the body but also due to the ability we posses to discover and depict such wonders.

The histories of medicine, art, and technology are tightly intertwined, each discipline sharing the purpose of explaining and improving the world around and - in the case of this exhibition’s subject matter - within us. A study of the intersection between these three disciplines at the point of anatomical representation reveals a complex and contributory relationship.

With the evolution from woodcuts and etchings to X rays and angiograms, our understanding of the body has also advanced. As technology and understanding have progressed, so has an idea that rational understanding of the body should be separate from the emotion and bias of the interpreting artist.

Despite ideas of separation, some artists and scientists continue a dialogue. These practitioners discover powerful metaphors in medical images and the insights that they contain, weaving them together with the history of art and ideas. Collaborations of this nature often lead to medical and scientific insight, but there is an element that may be overlooked for the sake of advancement. These collaborations often produce work that has the potential to remind us of our humanity and to keep alive our sense of wonder and awe.

The exploration of anatomical images, the diversity of their meaning and interpretation, is the focus of this exhibition. Visionary Anatomies contains the work of contemporary artists who use medical images and concepts to express aesthetic, social and cultural ideas. These artists represent a wide range of media, artistic styles, and schools of thought that actively exist in the art world today.

To provide an historical context for this exhibition, Michael Sappol’s insightful essay, ”Visionary Anatomies and the Great Divide: Art, Science and the Changing Conventions of Anatomical Representation, 1500-2003”, has been reproduced in this catalogue. Dr. Sappol’s essay, supported by extensive research and writing in the area of anatomical history and art, enlightens a perspective that ties the past to the ideas present in the work of contemporary artists.

Recently, there have been several exhibitions that have included artists utilizing a visual language made possible through the collective advancements of medicine, anatomy and technology. Visionary Anatomies was inspired from this active dialogue and most directly influenced by the National Library of Medicine’s Dream Anatomy exhibition curated by Michael Sappol (October 9, 2002 to July 31, 2003). Other exhibitions that have directly influenced Visionary Anatomies include Spectacular Bodies: The Art of Science of the Human Body from Leonardo to Now (Hayward Gallery, London, October 19, 2000 - January 14, 2001), Revealing Bodies (Exploratorium, San Francisco: March 18 – September 4, 2000), The Art of Science (International Center of Photography, New York: March 12- May 30, 2004), and The New Anatomists (Welcome Trust, London: March 11 - July 16, 1999)

The highest credit and gratitude, however, must be extended to the artists and institutions who willingly and generously allowed work to be included in a cross disciplinary exhibition of this nature.

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