The Anatomy Lesson:

• The Anatomy Lesson: Overview
• The Anatomy Lesson: Skeletons and Shadows
• The Sudden Death of Eddy
• The Slow Death of Rose
• Newborns
• The Anatomy Lesson: The Dead
• The Anatomy Lesson: Drawings From The Laboratory
• The Anatomy Lesson: Memory Pictures
• The Anatomy Lesson: Dimensional Drawings
• Installations from UCSD School of Medicine
• The Brain Project (movies 2, 6, and 8)

...Subsequent experiences with very slow processes of dying and the deaths of those close to me informed my concept of what I have come to refer to as "exemplary death." It is a calm acceptance that in no way diminishes the will to survive. Equally powerful as this acceptance is the lingering presence of the newly dead, recognized by those who are receptive to it. Compelled to understand this phenomenon better and to find a visual language for its expression, I sought a medical-school setting. I thought that those in the clinical context might not give credence to such an experience. As it turned out the very opposite was true: the phenomenon was confirmed by the sensitive and understanding staff of the UCSD Anatomical Preparation Laboratory and by my experiences drawing from cadavers during the first 3 days after death.

The most compelling aspect of the newly dead is their presence, which is so strong it seems palpable, even to the point where I needed to sense their approval to draw them. The technical challenge of representing the dead is to differentiate death from sleep or repose. What characterizes that difference is the fact of body weighs. Life is aerobic, buoyant and responsive. Its loss leaves an inert mass without propulsion that is, precisely, "dead weight/' The common usage of the word "passing" for death implies a process; Rigor mortis, the stiffening of the muscles after death, happens over a period of about I2 hours and gradually disappears in 48 to 60 hours —a total of approximately 72 hours. A subject for further research is the coincidence of this clinically noted time and the periods of time noted in various religious beliefs and practices, such as the 3 days between the death and resurrection of Christ.

The weight of the body is translated through drawing, [showing] the horizontal body, with folded hands and backward-tilting head on an extended neck—a recognizable sign of death. It is the body in limbo, with just enough indication of support to suggest its substantial weight.

Excerpts from: "The Anatomy Lesson: The Body Technology and Empathy"
Artist's Article by Joyce Cutler-Shaw, Leonardo, Journal of the International Society for the Arts, Science and Technology
Vol.27 Number 1, 1994. The MIT Press