About

About the Online Exhibition

Dream Anatomy, a refresh of the 2002 exhibition project, features imaginative anatomical books from the National Library of Medicine’s extensive historical collections, along with the work of 20th- and 21st-century artists. The invention of the printing press in the 15th century—and the print technologies that followed—helped to inspire the science of anatomy, and new visions of the body. In turn, anatomical imagery proliferated, both detailed and informative, but also whimsical, surreal, beautiful, and grotesque—a dream anatomy that reveals as much about the outer world as it does the inner self. Dream Anatomy shows off the anatomical imagination from 1500 to the present.

The original exhibition was on display in the Rotunda Gallery at the National Library of Medicine during October 9, 2002–July 31, 2003. An online exhibition launched in October 2002, as well. The exhibition catalog is also available in NLM Digital Collections.