Since 1990s, there has been a growing body of work contextualising and problematising the distinction between science and aesthetics, and particularly the value and contribution of visual media to medicine. The past two decades have seen a flourishing of papers, conferences and books on the subject, and recent additions such as Domenico Bertoloni Meli’s Visualizing Disease, Philip Mackowiak’s Patients as Art and Thames and Hudson’s Sick Rose trilogy demonstrate an enduring popular interest in the subject, particularly in relation to European medical epistemology.
Anatomy of the Medical Image is the latest addition to academic discourse with a stated aim to focus on the reciprocal relationship between medical knowledge and visual media as it pertains to the medicalised body, suggesting that the visual can illuminate the various kinds of bodies that make up the medical conception of the body and the mind. It derives from the 2017 conference The Anatomy of the Medical Image: Perspectives on the (Bio)Medical Body in Science, Literature, Culture and Politics held at Monash University in Melbourne, although the editors have gone beyond the conference papers to essays from across the globe.
In attempting to upend the notion that medical knowledge is independent from the visual media in which it is so often expressed, the essays intentionally explore a wide range of sources of medical knowledge, medical practices and eras; as the ambitious subtitle suggests, the editors aim to cover the expanse of medical knowledge and its visual counterparts from the Renaissance to today. What the subtitle does not reveal is the range of medical knowledge under consideration, from medical training to obstetrics, psychology to surgery and broader visions of the medicalised body. Although some of these areas, such as obstetrics, are already well recognised as contributing to the history of medical epistemology, this book forges knew areas of knowledge by looking at practitioners that are less well known (either because of their gender or race) or specific texts and visuals that are undervalued resources (such as forensic photography, popular advertisements or popular television programmes).
This swathe of medical and visual history is addressed over thirteen chapters divided into three parts, each defined loosely by theme and chronology. Part One, entitled ‘The Epistemology of Anatomy and Aesthetics’, focuses on the dialogue between depictions of the body and the practice and theory of anatomy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Part Two, ‘Identity and Visual (De)Formation’, explores (mostly) nineteenth-century relationships between identity creation and images of the medical body. Moving into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Part Three, ‘Power, Consumption and the Pathological Body’, considers the circulation of images of a traditionally medicalised body as they enter cultural and political discourse. Even within these three themes, the essays are refreshingly distinct, with each author focusing on a particular aspect of visual and medical knowledge. Most chapters include good quality illustrations carefully chosen to support and demonstrate the overarching thesis that images do more than illustrate medical ideas – they also embody medical knowledge.
The attempt to cover such a wide range and evolution of medical knowledge and its visual counterparts over the past five centuries is a herculean undertaking and, though admirably done, naturally means that pockets of history, culture and visual media are left unexplored. The essays centre on the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with nods to Rembrandt and contemporary (post 2010) art and medicine. This means that the medical world of the Renaissance is only occasionally referenced, and no authors address the role of medical images in such fascinating and influential time periods as the post-World War II evolution of social health care, or the more recent digitisation of clinical encounters.
Perhaps as a result of focusing on the eighteenth to the early twentieth century, the essays are also predominantly concerned with the medical history of continental Europe, with America and Britain referenced only occasionally. The notable exception is Carolyn Lau’s insightful chapter on the blending of Chinese and Western medical portraiture in the work of Chinese artist Lam Qua. Another highlight is Birgit Lang’s chapter on the underappreciated contribution of forensic photography to the artistic and cultural reality of sexually motivated murder in the Weimar Republic. Both offer insight into less familiar areas of medical and visual history and suggest a trajectory for future study in this otherwise well-developed area of research. Artist stef lenk presents her artwork alongside an explanatory essay detailing her process artistically representing her own depression and anxiety. The inclusion of lenk’s artwork is an intriguing and admirable stab at diversifying the academic perspective of the book, but so personal a reflection inevitably adds less to the historical insights presented in the other essays.
Overall, Anatomy of the Medical Image relies on its range of perspectives to stand out in the sea of literature. This diversity of perspectives and histories is commendable and further demonstrates the established interplay between medical knowledge and visual media, but it also means that depth has, to an extent, been sacrificed for breadth. Scholars with interests in a particular era or culture may find this book of only limited interest. Still, the broad base of research means that there are some new archives, artists and individual works or collections considered that expand the existing pool of knowledge.
