TESTIMONIALS DREAM ANATOMY This is either the most beautifully written art book I’ve ever come across, or the most beautifully illustrated essay. Michael Sappol’s commanding expertise and bold, inventive insights inform and illuminate in eloquent prose. Using images and words with equal mastery, Dream Anatomy brings to life the surreal tango of art and dissection. If you buy just one book, okay, two books about cadavers, make this the other one….
— Mary Roach, author of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
Dream Anatomy is a beautifully articulated exploration of the interrelated histories of anatomical art, science, and technology. It reminds us that there was a time when these disciplines were dependent upon one another to reveal the complex, but hidden wonders of the interior of the human body. Today, new medical ideas and models, and new imaging technologies, are once again challenging us to re-imagine and represent our anatomical selves. [Delete last sentence?] —JD Talasek, Curator of Exhibitions, National Academy of Sciences
Dream Anatomy is a dream-come-true resource for illustrating the history of medicine. These images richly demonstrate the developing knowledge of anatomy and progression of printing techniques over five centuries. —Charleen M. Moore, Anatomist, Professor, Dept. of Cellular and Structural Biology, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio Michael Sappol is the leading figure on the politics of anatomy in nineteenth-century America. His superb book
A Traffic of Dead Bodies is of interest to anyone studying American cultural history. In
Dream Anatomy, Sappol extends his analysis to broader histories of anatomical practice in an accessible and wondrously illustrated text. —Alexander Nemerov, Professor of Art History, Yale University, author of
The Body of Raphaelle Peale and
Frederic Remington and Turn-of-the-Century America This information is from Choice Reviews Online, an ALA/ACRL publication, available by subscription at http://www.cro2.org/. Reprinted with permission from CHOICE, copyright American Library Association
45-2069 QM25 MARC Science & Technology \ Health Sciences Sappol, Michael. Dream anatomy. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2006. 177p bibl; ISBN 9780160759826 pbk, $30.00. Reviewed in 2007dec CHOICE.
Dream Anatomy was a significant anatomical and artistic imaging exhibition provided by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) five years ago. Now, thanks to the creativity of NLM's Sappol and involved staff members, and the first collaboration between the NLM and the US Government Printing Office, readers are treated to an extraordinarily comprehensive visual/print catalog long after the exhibition is over. People have a continual curiosity about the human body, and much may be learned about people through its historical study. Artistic presentations focusing on human form must have an intrinsic appeal. Why else would anatomical exhibitions and visual showings have become so popular? People are intrigued by such "know thyself" concepts. Sappol has provided a fine historical journey, embellishing the original exhibition's materials with even more from NLM's ! collecti ons. He demonstrates scientific, artistic, even humorous and mythical changes over hundreds of years of dissections, drawings, and inaccuracies concerning the human body's structural organization. The volume includes a time line of historical anatomy; technical information about anatomical illustration; further documentation about the original exhibition's sources; additional readings; and the unusual opportunity to view many of the anatomical exhibitions and graphics in this catalog on various Web sources provided. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels. -- J. N. Muzio, emeritus, CUNY Kingsborough Community College
Reprinted with permission from CHOICE, copyright by the American Library Association. © American Library Association. Contact permissions@ala-choice.org for permission to reproduce or redistribute.
