Paper short abstract:

This paper will focus on a comparison between the illustrations and text within Gray's Anatomy from the point of view of an artist and medical anthropologist originally trained in medicine, and for whom this text was foundational in learning anatomy.

Paper long abstract:

Grey's Anatomy was first published in 1858 by Henry Gray and illustrated by Henry Vandyke Carter. In this paper we shall be looking at how the visuals relate, interpret and add to the text. We shall address the following issues: How do the text and drawings convey the subject and what lies at the specificity of each? Are they oppositional? Are the drawings merely illustrations or do they provide a more nuanced and workable understanding of the human body? Do they function in a different didactic way than the textual descriptions, and if so, how? What parts of the human anatomy is the focus of the drawings and what do they not show? Is there a concern for surface and how is the three dimensionality of the body rendered? How do they structure the body? How do medical students and professionals work with the text/diagrams?

We focus on the significance of the fact that they are drawings and not photographs, and ask if we can talk about the importance that this particular medium of art has for conveying such information. We reflect on how rendering the body through lines and contours aid our understanding of its form and the ways the body works, and how the space within the body is conveyed.