Anatomical Atlases as Cultural Pedagogy of Bodies and the Afterlife of Images

Abstract

Anatomical atlases, as they cast unique physical forms of the human body grounded on an objective coherence between organs and their functions, fulfil the task of maintaining, through anatomical images, a certain idea of body and of subject. Thinking corporeity as a composition of biological and cultural forces, the forms whereby it is presented do not coincide with the biological body or its structuring order, but rather they constitutes an open map, connecting lines that move in the immanence of vital processes. We aim to present, in this text, the atlases as cultural pedagogy, given that, nowadays, all artefacts simultaneously become pedagogical and cultural.