This editing project arose out of two interests: (1) I am an admirer of the ‘Visible Skeleton’ series of artworks, an autobiographical collection by New York artist Laura Ferguson. (2) I like to try to get diverse people to talk about their relationships to unusual anatomies and representations of them.

So I solicited and edited a series of articles on Ferguson’s series for Perspectives in Biology and Medicine (Spring 2004, vol. 47, no. 2), including:

1. ‣“The ‘Visible Skeleton’ Series: Artist’s Introduction,” by Laura Ferguson (artist living with scoliosis)
   
   

2. ‣“Seeing Yourself,” by Alice Domurat Dreger (historian of medicine and patient advocate)
   
   

3. ‣“The Scaffolding of the Self,” by Cassandra Aspinall (social worker on a craniofacial team; mother of child with cleft, and herself born with cleft)
   
   

4. ‣“Reaching Within,” by David W. Polly, Jr. (spinal surgeon)
   
   

5. ‣“Collecting Oneself,” by J. Bruce Beckwith (retired forensic pathologist and historian of medicine)
   
   

An offprint of this series of essays has been used as the exhibit program for Ferguson’s showing at the National Museum of Health and Medicine.

A link to this series is available through Project Muse.

Go to “major academic articles” page
Go to main “writing” page

The ‘Visible Skeleton’ Series

(edited commentary)