Bodies in Ink: The Dark History of Anatomical Art

A Leeds exhibition, Beneath the Sheets: Anatomy, Art and Power, reveals how centuries of anatomical illustration fused science with display, often using unconsenting cadavers and shaped by class, race and gender biases—from Rembrandt and Vesalius to 19th‑century atlases and the necropolitics of bodysnatching—asking who profits, who is depicted, and how social context has steered medical knowledge.