Anatomica: The Exquisite and Unsettling Art of Human Anatomy by Joanna Ebenstein

Anatomica: The Exquisite and Unsettling Art of Human Anatomy Reviews

• 
  Danielle Trussoni

  There’s a fine line between the horrible and the sublime, and Joanna Ebenstein’s ANATOMICA: The Exquisite and Unsettling Art of Human Anatomy walks it. This collection of “strikingly beautiful, challenging, even bizarre” anatomical illustrations explores “our attempts to come to terms with the tragedy and wonder of being born into a body, and the certainty of our own death.” Paging through, one finds bodies in various states of undoing — dissection, surgery, pregnancy — and the result is repulsive and resplendent in equal measure. The human body, one feels while looking at these prints, is both an intimate and shockingly impersonal thing. Gazing at people opened up and displayed so coldly evokes one of the horror genre’s most defining traits: the visceral, almost primal, need to see what frightens us, even while covering our eyes.
  
  An etching by Cornelius Huyberts of fetal and infant skeletons is particularly hard to turn away from. With skulls arranged as delicately as a tower of profiteroles, this 18th-century memento mori is both morbid and magnificent: We are here today, it seems to say, and gone tomorrow, so make the most of it. And indeed, Ebenstein writes that she hopes the book “might itself serve as a memento mori of sorts."
  
  Ebenstein, creator of the Morbid Anatomy blog, points out that in the Renaissance dissection of the human body was a form of spectacle performed for “a paying public” and “often part of the festivities related to carnival celebrations and might be accompanied by drinks and music.”
• 
  Tom

  Amply illustrated, Joanna Eberstein’s Anatomica: The Exquisite & Unsettling Art of Human Anatomy provides a lush visual overview of (per the table of contents) “The Full Body,” “The Dissected Body,” “Procreation,” “Upper Body,” and “Lower Body.” As the books’ subtitle implies, the pictures join the morality and storytelling of art to the scientist’s scalpel. It’s not just the human body that is endlessly fascinating, but also the media in which it’s presented and discussed—sketches, paintings, sculptures, and more.
  
  Anatomica provides an overview of several centuries’ worth of studies of every part of human anatomy by scholars, scientists, and artists from around the world, with examples of their work representing philosophical and (pre)scientific ideas of representation and the evolving assumptions regarding, for instance, pregnancy, vision, and musculature.
  
  The prose is accessible and meant for a general audience. Trigger warning: members of the general audience who don’t think books about anatomy should necessarily include depictions of the body in various states of unclad wholeness are advised to stay away. Only the curious need apply.
• 
  Mike

  This is quite an astonishing book that provides illustrations, watercolors, woodcuts, and paintings of anatomical images in the centuries before photographic imaging or x-rays. Anatomical students and artists could only rely on viewing actual dissections to get these images, which then had to be drawn in the moment. The detail, color, and sheer thoroughness of the images is incredible, given the constraints of the anatomists and artists (who, in rare cases, were one-in-the-same). The book includes hundreds of full-color images presented in over 250 pages, divided into several sections: full body, systems, individual organs, procreation, upper body, and lower body. The images range from photographic detail to almost expressionist interpretations of human figures postmortem. Most of the art comes from Western sources, but a few images from Eastern medicine are included. A must-read for students of anatomy, the fine arts, or just anyone curious to see how the body was studied, interpreted, and replicated in print before photography or glossy medical textbooks.
• 
  J Earl

  Anatomica: The Exquisite and Unsettling Art of Human Anatomy by Joanna Ebenstein is a richly illustrated and very informative look at the ways the human body has been presented for both education and art.
  
  I read this shortly after reading Flesh and Bones from Getty Publications and together these books offered a well-rounded look at the art of the human body through the ages. The strengths of Ebenstein's volume is that it is more of a single work while the other uses essays to highlight aspects of the exhibition it is for.
  
  I was impressed with the captions in this book, they were both quite informative while also being almost conversational in tone. There was a humanity and sense of compassion in the writing that made the images seem personal rather than clinical or even simply artistic.
  
  I would recommend this to those who want both a beautifully illustrated book and one that also shares information.
  
  Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via Edelweiss.
• 
  Paul Decker

  *I received this book as an eARC from Laurence King Publishing via Edelweiss. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*
  
  This collection of anatomical illustrations from the 16th century up to the 20th century is diverse and expansive. There's definitely a certain kind of person that will enjoy this book. So many different styles throughout different time periods are showcased. The history of human dissection. The anatomy of organs. Details of the blood system. I had a lot of fun flipping through this book. This would make an excellent gift for any anatomy fanatic. I could see this on a doctor's coffee table at home or at their office. I give this book a 4/5.
• 
  Lynsey Walker

  This book is both exquisite and unsettling as the title would suggest, the art it depicts is exquisite, and us humans are unsettlingly complicated inside.
  
  The art between these covers is stunning, the level of detail that those anatomical artists managed to put on the page is almost hyper-real and in some cases dates back hundreds of years. I fear, like so many things of beauty, this is a talent has been lost in this day and shitty age.
  
  This book is also filled with long medical words I didn't understand which related to said pictures, but it's OK if you don't speak Latin or really understand what is going on, just sit back and bask in the beautiful, beautiful art herein.
  
  The most interesting fact I learnt? The scientific name for the taint.
• 
  Devann

  I received an ARC copy of this book from Edelweiss
  
  I mostly skimmed the text of this book and focused on the illustrations but there's a lot of really interesting stuff in here. Covers a large amount of time and also features illustrations from many different countries. The illustrations are all gorgeous and it's really interesting to see how the understanding of anatomy has changed over the centuries. Would make an interesting coffee table book if you're friends with the kind of people who wouldn't be grossed out ;)
• 
  Kaitlin

  Beautiful and sometimes grotesque, excellent guide about the history of anatomic art. Covering all the body parts and different periods of anatomic art, it is interesting for anyone interested in either the human body or drawings.
  
  I received a copy from Edelweis+ all opinions are my own
• 
  Joe

  This was a beautiful volume of anatomical illustrations from the 17th through the 19th centuries. If you love museums like the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia or exhibits such as Body Worlds, then this book is a perfect fit!
• 
  Clayton Ellis

  A great resource for my personal library of interesting sciency things
• 
  Kirstin

  Read this exquisite book cover to cover. Just beautiful.
• 
  Peter Lipták

  Úžasné ilustrácie. Výborne zostavené.