The wild success of the traveling Body Worlds exhibition is testimony to the powerful allure that human bodies can have when opened up for display in gallery spaces. But while anatomy museums have shown their visitors much about bodies, they themselves are something of an obscure phenomenon, with their incredible technological developments and complex uses of visual images and the flesh itself remaining largely under researched. This book investigates anatomy museums in Western settings, revealing how they have operated in the often passionate pursuit of knowledge that inspires both fascination and fear. Elizabeth Hallam explores these museums, past and present, showing how they display the human body—whether naked, stripped of skin, completely dissected, or rendered in the form of drawings, three-dimensional models, x-rays, or films. She identifies within anatomy museums a diverse array of related issues—from the representation of deceased bodies in art to the aesthetics of science, from body donation to techniques for preserving corpses and ritualized practices for disposing of the dead. Probing these matters through in-depth study, Anatomy Museum unearths a strange and compelling cultural history of the spaces human bodies are made to occupy when displayed after death.

Anatomy museums around the world showcase preserved corpses in service of education and medical advancement, but they are little-known and have been largely hidden from the public eye. Elizabeth Hallam here investigates the anatomy museum and how it reveals the fascination and fears that surround the dead body in Western societies. Hallam explores the history of these museums and how they operate in the current cultural environment. Their regulated access increasingly clashes with evolving public mores toward the exposed body, as demonstrated by the international popularity of the Body Worlds exhibition. The book examines such related topics as artistic works that employ the images of dead bodies and the larger ongoing debate over the disposal of corpses. Issues such as aesthetics and science, organ and body donations, and the dead body in Western religion and ritual are also discussed here in fascinating depth. The Anatomy Museum unearths a strange and compelling cultural history that investigates the ideas of preservation, human rituals of death, and the spaces that our bodies occupy in this life and beyond.

Anatomy is Destiny is the first monograph of artist Marina Font. Her photo-based work explores ideas about identity, gender, territory, language, memory and the forces of the unconscious. The book¿s title, stemming from Freud, also speaks to the ever-evolving understanding of gender and self-realization in the 21st century.The unique pieces reproduced in Anatomy is Destiny stem from a single source photograph made by Font of a nude female figure. Reminiscent of Da Vinci¿s Vitruvian Man, but with arms down and palms forward, the black and white photograph is both consistent and variant as Font renders each piece through application of embroidery, paint, yarn, and other materials. Through the rituals of these traditionally feminine practices, she, in her own words, ¿opens a dialogue between biology and psychology, our social and private persona¿ in the ¿evolving mutability¿ of womanhood.

Written by a museum professional and based on a course taught for many years, The Anatomy of a Museum is an engaging and accessible volume that provides a unique insider’s guide to what museums are and how they operate. An insider’s view of the rarefied world of the museum that provides a refreshing and unique account of the reality of the workings of museum life The material has been successfully tested in a course that the author has taught for 14 years Miller has extensive experience at all levels of museum work, from painting walls for exhibitions to museum directorship Clearly and engagingly written, the book covers all the component parts and various disciplines of museum operations, and opinions and perspectives are drawn from a deep knowledge of the field Includes useful pedagogical material, including questions, discussion topics, and a range of anecdotes

A major component of many modern human anatomy programs is commemorating people who have donated their body for education and research. In addition, some institutions have also organized memorial places to honor the body donors. This book is an edited volume which explores the phenomena of commemorations and memorials in anatomy. It includes both descriptive papers focusing on the content of the ceremonies and theoretical papers contextualizing and examining these within the broader ethical, scientific, medical and educational frameworks. Building up on the idea of a community of practice, the main objective of the volume is to enhance the exchange of ideas and sharing of experiences. The concepts of "commemoration" and "memorial" in anatomy programs are presented as emerging. They are seen as phenomena that will continue to evolve and ramify within different cultural and educational contexts, and this volume is expected to facilitate these processes. Indeed, meager literature on the topic indicates potentially enormous practical value in sharing and combining practices from different cultural and teaching/research traditions.