Body Criticism: Imaging the Unseen in Enlightenment Art and Medicine

Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1991. Cloth, xxi, 587 pages, illustrations; 29 cm. Near fine. Firm binding, clean inside copy. Spine slightly rolled at the crown. Dust jacket protected in a mylar book cover. OVERSIZE! No priority/air, except by special arrangement. "Body Criticism is a celebration of visual culture as well as a major contribution to our understanding of the history of the human body. At its core is a profound exploration of the innovative strategies developed in the eigtheenth century for making visible the unseeable aspects of the world. In the process it uncovers and analyzes the persistence of a remarkable set of body metaphors deriving from both aesthetic and medical practices. For Barbara Stafford, all forms of representation are metaphors for cognitive processes in a society, and the historian's job is to reconstruct the metaphors in order to shed light on the society. Here she looks at the changing nature of images of the human body as a key to understanding the changing status of the body as western society was establishing the outlines of modernity. The six central chapters examine a remarkable range of images and representational practices under the headings Dissecting, Abstracting, Conceiving, Marking, Magnifying, and Sensing. The importance of Body Criticism lies in its own visibilizing of previously unexplored interrelationships between art and medicine not only during the Enlightenment but now. Stafford also presents a strong argument for society's need to recognize the occurrence of a profound revolution - a radical shift from a textbased to a visually-centered culture. She offers a novel analysis of a philosophic, artistic, and scientific quest that continues in our contemporary technological search to reveal nonapparent physical and mental experience. Based on her study of the roots of this visual culture, she argues that modern societies need to develop innovative, nonlinguistic paradigms and to train a broad public in visual aptitude. / Barbara Stafford is Professor of Art History at the University of Chicago." - Publisher.. Hardcover. Very Good/Fine. 4to. Collectible.