Art & Anatomy: Drawings University of California Medical Humanities Press) tells the story of an innovative anatomy drawing class in the Master Scholars Program in Humanistic Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Primarily a visual book, Art & Anatomy: Drawings features 92 drawings made in the class by medical students, doctors, nurses, scientists, researchers, and other health professionals, as well as photographs taken in the Anatomy Lab, essays, quotes, a curriculum guide to help others start their own anatomy drawing course, and more.


 
 

Art & Anatomy: Drawings “is an inspiration, a pleasure, and an education. It should be required reading for all students of anatomy, health professions educators, and anyone else interested in the intersections of art and science, beauty and biology.
Louise Aronson, MD, MFA, author of Elderhood and A History of the Present Illness, Professor, University of California San Francisco School of Medicine

“In Art & Anatomy we see medical students not just memorizing anatomical structures, but really seeing the bodies that lie before them. This practice—slowing down, thinking deeply, looking closely—may be just as valuable to the education of these doctors-in-training as their burgeoning knowledge of anatomy will be. This is an important book that not only honors the beautiful artwork that the students produced, but which also should inspire other medical schools to pair creativity and analysis in the human anatomy lab.”
Christine Montross, MD, author of Body of Work; Associate Professor, Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University

“The Art & Anatomy drawings are engaging, expressive, imaginative, and sometimes very moving, like the sketch of a student’s hand holding the hand of a skeleton. Student comments speak of humility, intimacy, deep focus, and attention to detail. One writes that “creating art is a meditative experience” and looks forward to carrying mindfulness into his daily life. Indeed, Art & Anatomy is a project that brings eye, heart, and hand together in a process that fosters transformative experience.” 
Jack Coulehan, MD, MPH, poet and Senior Fellow, Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics, Stony Brook University


“This book invites the complex pleasures of finding beauty where many might prefer not to look at all. The drawings are full of aesthetic wonder.  As the record of a process, the book is even more extraordinary, for the class offers its participants a precious compound rare in medical training: unrushed observation, technical tenacity, and expressive freedom. And it ends with generous guidelines for introducing anatomy drawing at other schools: I hope many will follow this valuable advice.” 
Catherine Belling, PhD, Associate Professor, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University