Michael Sappol

In centuries past, sexual body-parts and same-sex desire were unmentionables, debarred from polite conversation and printed discourse. Yet one scientific discipline—anatomy—had licence to represent and narrate the intimate details of the human body—anus and genitals included. Figured within the frame of an anatomical plate, presentations of dissected bodies and body-parts were often soberly technical, but just as often monstrous, provocative,...