Reading the Book of the Body: The 19th-Century Flap Anatomy as Body/Text

Institute for Bioethics Seminar Jessica M. Dandona, PhD Professor of Art History Minneapolis College of Art and Design This talk explores the history of so-called flap anatomies, printed atlases of human anatomy that offer readers the opportunity to engage in a virtual dissection as they fold back layered paper models of the body. By the late nineteenth century, these colorful printed works not only affirmed the privileged status of anatomy as a visual and textual language for describing the body but also reinscribed older forms of knowledge, including the “secrets of women,” within the framework of modern medical science. Sponsored by the Institute for Bioethics