Health and the Human Body

This exhibition explored the diverse, dynamic, and sometimes contradictory ways we understand and experience our bodies through works of art from the Spencer’s collection, as well as commissions and loans. Together, these works revealed the many ways that artists, scientists, healers, and others have come to understand the body through time and across cultural contexts. Healing addressed broad topics such as cross-cultural perspectives on illness, aging, and death. Knowing examined the roles that art can play in expanding knowledge about the body. Seeing highlighted the new forms of understanding we generate by observing and visualizing the body.  

Selected publications and media

• The Washington Post, “The human body, how it is understood and what it can endure, is the art for this exhibit” 
• KC Studio, “Gallery Glance: Poignant Photograph by Philip Heying is Part of Spencer Museum’s ‘Healing, Knowing, Seeing the Body’ Exhibit”