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Nychos Various, 2016
‘Nychos is a street artist from Austria who creates spectacular, detailed artworks. His childhood experiences strongly influenced him in combination with his artistic curiosity to establish his style in creating animal and human figures, dismembered and anatomically shown. He also established the movement REM – Rabbit Eye Movement- . It nourishes the idea notion of creative destruction and the breakdown of society.’
Dissection of Lemmy
Dissection of Hasselhoff
Dissection of Pekinese
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Bonnie Seeman Pitcher with Intestines, 2011
Porcelain, glass
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Stathis Logothetis Ε273, 1980
‘For Stathis Logothetis—who studied music in Thessaloniki and Vienna, before devoting himself to visual art—the creative act was a biological necessity. His “Action Works,” made after 1963, took the form of objects in which the often violent act of combining or shaping found materials was evident as such. The works were sometimes realized by Logothetis in front of an audience or by the audience itself. Focusing on a physical response to art, his works are often painted in hues of red, resembling skin, alluding to violent or violated bodies. In cases such as Ε273, the artist’s body was temporarily enveloped within the work itself.’
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Paul Thek Untitled, 1966
‘Thek scandalized the 1960s New York art world with his wax meat and organ sculptures. It delighted me that bodies could be used to decorate a room,’ Thek wrote, ‘like flowers.’ While austere minimal objects where de rigueur, he felt these oozing severed hands and body cross-sections were ‘emotional’ or just plain hot in a way that minimalist art was not.’
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Anatomage Getting to know the Anatomage Cadavers: Chiari Malformation, 2023
‘Our caucasian male cadaver has an interesting pathology you can discover – a Chiari malformation. First named by Dr. Chiari, this is when part of the cerebellum protrudes through the foramen magnum into the spinal column.’
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Rebecca Howland Lung Cancer Ashtray, 1984
glazed ceramic
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Valeriya N-Georg Axon, 2016
‘I was trying to conceive a gel-like texture that visually resembles skin and brain tissue. The idea of using gel as my main art media was born by imagining the jelly-like fluid substance of the cytosol which makes up a significant part of all living cells.’
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Chen Zhen Crystal Landscape of Inner Body, 2000
Crystal, iron, glass
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Pinky MM Bass Contemplating My Internal Organs, 1999
‘When Alabama-based artist Pinky M M Bass’s sister was suffering from cancer, the artist started stitching internal organs on photos as a means of processing what was going on insider her sister’s body.’
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Rosita D’Agrosa Feminist is what it is because of the womb, 2018
Mixed media
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Tim Hawkinson Überorgan, 2000
‘Überorgan was a massive musical instrument, a Brobdingnagian bastard cousin of the bagpipe, the player piano, and the pipe organ. It consisted of thirteen bus-sized inflated bags: one for each of the twelve tones in the musical scale and one udder-shaped bag that fed air to the other twelve by long tubular ducts. Filled with these large, lumpy forms — some hanging from the 28′-tall trussed ceiling — the gallery and its contents insinuated the chest cavity and internal organs of a very large living organism. The beamed ceiling read like a rib cage, and the translucent, biomorphic bags encapsulated in orange netting were unknown glands or organs delicately traced with blood vessels.’
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Clemente Susini Anatomical Venus, 1780
‘This highly realistic, life-size wax model of a naked woman could be dissected in seven layers, ending with a tiny fetus curled up inside her womb. What makes this more artistic (or weirder?) is that she has a full head of real human hair and she wears a string of pearls around her neck. Her head is tilted back on a soft cushion, with an ecstatic expression on her face. Bear in mind that back then a look of ecstasy was sacred, not erotic. The same expression would be found in many religious paintings – it evokes mystery, not sex.’
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Adriana Varejão Carpet-Style Tilework in Live Flesh, 1999
oil on canvas and polyurethane on aluminum and wood support
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Noah Scalin AK-47 Anatomy, 2015
polymer clay, polymer resin, acrylic, enamel, epoxy
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Annette Messager Penetration, 1993-94
‘Messager has sewn shapes from brightly colored fabric and stuffed them to resemble human internal organs. Hanging from slight, soft-pink angora yarns in a dense grouping, the forms create a floating forest of anatomical parts.’
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Janine Rewell Tan the Man, 2009
‘Janine Rewell used customized vinyl stickers and strategically placed them across Tan the Man’s body. He then burned, and burned, and burned until the very distinct, very emphatic ‘x-ray’ images were ‘stuck’ to his body.’
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Anat Homm Unberührt, 2023
wax, textile, wood, plaster
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Louise Bourgeois End of Softness, 1967
Bronze
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Vera Lutter Haider al-Shihlawi, 2003
Inkjet print
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Helen Pynor and Peta Clancy The Body is a Big Place, 2013
‘‘The Body is a Big Place’ installation incorporated live (biological) art, a 5-channel video projection and soundscape. Performers in the video work were all individuals who have had experiences of organ transplantation. The installation included a fully functioning heart perfusion device which was used to reanimate to a beating state a pair of pig hearts during live performances. Once the hearts were maintained to the conditions emulating the inside the body they began to do what they do, that is to beat. This was an uncanny, miraculous, and at times horrifying process to witness.’
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Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva Beauty Exposed I, 2016
Sheep stomach, intestine and turned wood
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Stuart Brisley And For Today … Nothing, 1972
‘British performance artist Stuart Brisley’s And For Today … Nothing, 1972, was staged in the depths of a run-down, shabby building in London. A dirty bath was filled to the brim with black water and rotting animal intestines, where flies and maggots festered away. Brisley lay naked in this dirty mess every day for two weeks, with his head positioned just far enough above the water so that he could still breathe. Small groups of visitors were then invited to enter the building and observe him in this vulnerable, half-dead state. This performance was part of a group exhibition at Gallery House, Goethe Institution, London, but the smell of cold water filled with decaying offal became so disgusting that all the other artists forced him to leave.’
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Cecilie Lind Torsos, 2017
Sculpture, Ceramic on Ceramic
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Aleksandry Waliszewskiej Przykre dziecko, 2014
paintings
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Andrea Hasler Next of Kin, 2014
‘The three intestine figures explore the notion of a nuclear aftermath.’
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Doreen Garner Red Rack of Those Ravaged and Unconsenting, 2018
‘Garner’s sculpture engages the history of medical experimentation on black women’s bodies in America. “Red Rack of Those Ravaged and Unconsenting” is a large metallic structure lined with red fluorescent bulbs. Dangling from hooks at its center are multiple oblong sculptures made of silicone body parts sutured together with staples, marbleized silicone, expanding foam, fiberglass insulation, a protective layer of sharp needles, and an array of meticulously arranged beads.’
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MAFIA303 Goatse Diffusion, 2024
wood, bread, tomato
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John Wynne The Organ Recital, 2024
‘The Organ Recital is a musical composition based around my own recent CT scan (pictured). I was in the fortunate position to be receiving good news, so as the consultant talked me through the scan on his computer screen, my immediate thoughts, rather than racing through worst case scenarios, were about how amazing it was to see my body in this way. The music in this composition is generated by exploring the potential of software designed for medical professionals in ways doctors and diagnosticians wouldn’t consider.’
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Stan Brakhage The Act of Seeing with One’s Own Eyes, 1971
‘This silent film provides a poetic documentation of an autopsy performed on the human body. It is perhaps the first movie that confronts us with the unvarnished truth of death, the last secret, making us aware of our own physicality. The film’s title is derived from the Greek word “autopsía”, which is composed of the words for “self ” and “viewing” or the “act of seeing”.’
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Unknown Anatomical Christ, 17th century
‘A very special piece from my curio collection: a 17th-century wax crucifix, whose abdomen is equipped with a small door revealing the internal organs of Jesus. In the Holy Scriptures the bowels are a powerful verbal image with a double meaning: figurative and real. The same term, depending on the context and the dialogic referent, can qualify both divine infinity and human finiteness. In the Septuagint, which is largely faithful to the original Hebrew text of the Old Testament, there is a substantial semantic homology between the Greek terms σπλάγχνα (viscera), καρδία (heart) and κοιλία (belly). At the core of this equivalence lies the biblical conception of mercy: “to feel mercy” is to be compassionate “down to one’s bowels”. In Semitic languages, particularly in Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic, divine mercy shows not only a visceral significance, but also — and above all — a uterine value.’
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p.s. Hey. ** Bernard Welt, It’s always a lot around here, or that’s the dream. You can get that falafel, just make my phone ping, or it’s actually more kind of a buzz, or maybe a cross between a ping and a buzz, as soon as you’re temporarily re-ensconced here. Me, I would have shown ‘Ritual in Transfigured Time’, but I’m not a dream guy. ** Lucas, Hi, Lucas. Being older, I do have some friends who know Ochs’ work, but it’s almost always, ‘Right, I haven’t thought about him in decades’. Maybe I’ll make a Phil Ochs post and do my little part in helping to resurrect him/his. Oh, no, no, never worry, just write. Worrying is just a rusty old ‘No trespassing’ sign on the gate of somewhere beautiful. I’m a person who never remembers my dreams. Or, rather, sometimes I remember them for a fraction of a second upon waking, and then my waking mind erases them. So, no, I haven’t. I mean, there are great artists whose dreams feed their work in amazing ways, so maybe you’d get useful things out of transcribing yours? August, that’s not so far away. Thank those ducks for me. I’m just ever more envious of wherever you are. This is a photo of the courtyard of my building, and you can’t see it, but in the far right window on the ground floor facing you there is a woman dressed in white who is frantically waving at you. ** _Black_Acrylic, Yep, she was a pioneer, that Barbara. Okay, what do I know, but it seems like Red Bull sponsors some pretty successful teams and race cars and stuff, so that seems like a very promising move, correct me if I’m wrong. ** Misanthrope, You just like his name. Yeah, I’m gonna look into Olympics tickets today, you’re right. I’d never heard of pickleball before, but I just looked it up, and it looks really silly and embarrassing. ** myneighbourjohnturturro, You probably should, yeah. As should I. I don’t even have any kind of player, unless my Switch plays DVDs, and I’m pretty sure it doesn’t. Thank you about our films, man. The new film is more humorous and more emotional too. Hat trick. I personally think comedy is my work’s secret weapon in general, but what do I know. Okay, I’ll see the Bonello. I think it’s post-theaters here but probably online. I still haven’t cracked ‘…TV Glow’. Almost everyone I know is ‘meh’ about it, but I still want to know for myself. You’re watched it? ** Steve, RSV, urgh. So you’re contagious, according to the internet, so travel wisely. I hope you’re feeling better today. Agreed totally about Ochs’ A&M era. I might do a related post, I think. ** Harper, Hi, H. His ideas have a way of doing that, sinking in. Hopefully so deeply that the ideas become your own. That’s the hope. I totally understand your dilemma, or it sounds familiar, I mean. I guess I try to write in such a way that the language seems to be keeping a lot private. Because I think language is super inadequate. I think the best you can hope to do is make your writing apparently inadequate but charismatic enough that it causes the reader to sink into their own similarly untranslatable thoughts. Or something like that. I don’t know if that makes any sense. Hopes high that the job gets back to you with a thumbs up. Or, worst case, that if you end up under your parents’ roof, you can wield all that strangeness into your writing. But, again, I’m a weirdly practical, optimistic kind of dude. ** Darby 🦧, Haha, that’s hilarious, yes, I did accidentally trigger that rabbit’s bowel movement, oops. Sorry, not sorry. Well, you saw ‘Godzilla x Kong’, I suppose. I wrote a little and had a meeting and went to an art opening with a friend and drank coffee in a cafe. That sub sounds mighty edible, I must say. I’ll make one. Using a baguette! Ooh! Yay about your week. May your weekend follow suit. ** David Ehrenstein, David! Wow! Sir, it is such a great pleasure and huge relief to see you! I’ve really missed you. Wow, welcome back to life or at least to here. You’re like Santa Claus! How are you? xo, Dennis. ** Uday, Sure, my pleasure. There are giraffe shaped ones? I’m almost tempted to turn vaper myself, if so. Giraffes are my favorite animal. Even though their tongues freak me out. Yeah, the JT Leroy thing was unspeakably obnoxious and hateful. That some people romanticize it is maddening to me. But, oh well. How’s your weekend looking, feeling, smelling, tasting, etc.? ** Oscar 🌀, Oh, that’s right. Close but no cigar. I think the podcast Dennis Cooper is more the fun kind than the Trumper kind. I would kill to stumble across that brilliantly conceived roller coaster today or any roller coaster. I hope when someone types ‘hi Oscar’ to you on whatever social media platform you use that it isn’t a typo and that they didn’t intend to type ‘hit’. Glad you liked the Day. Um, the meeting was vaguely on the positive side of things while simultaneously reinforcing our preexisting knowledge that one of our producers is a weasly scumbag. So, I guess it could have been worse. As someone to whom pubs are anathema, I pray that you and your friend’s liveliness transcend your contexts. Oh, and have a cider on me. I do like cider. I hope I get to read today, thank you. You too, if you’re reading anything luxurious. ** Okay. I’m foisting some internal organs on you today for better or worse. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
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hi dennis. today’s post reminds me of an internship I did at a vet clinic last year, though the only internal organs I saw were during the few castrations I observed. that’s a great idea with the phil ochs post. I feel like I already integrate a lot of things about my dreams into my writing but it’d be good to think about it more consciously.
how are you doing? I hope you start your weekend off well. there’s nothing new on my end, I think, though I watched ‘news from home’ last night. it’s only the second akerman film I’ve seen and it definitely won’t be the last. I get so intensely into every french artist I encounter that I may be turning into a bit of a francophile haha. oh and I guess I’ve been playing around with the piano here too, which is kind of fun. I used to take piano classes an eternity ago, maybe I should get back into it? it’s funny how much you seem to like where I live; even though I love the nature here, I’ve been mostly thinking about how badly I want to go back to paris. maybe we could switch for a while, but I don’t know if I can see you loving germany.
here’s a photo of a garden! https://imgur.com/a/CEzUggZ you can’t see it, but I’m off screen, furiously waving back to the woman in white while sitting on a swing obviously designed for my toddler nephews that might break beneath my weight at any moment. I took a break from typing this because I just saw a random cat walking around here?! I accidentally scared it off so I couldn’t take any good photos, and black cats are supposedly bad luck, but I’m taking this as a good sign
hey I just saw the cat again!! sorry for the blurry pics https://imgur.com/a/s1dDtuG
Wow that cat is so beautiful wow you captured its elegance so perfectly! Trust me I’ve lived with like 6 different black cats (all at once at one point) They bring so much luck that I’m pretty sure the “black cats are bad luck” is just White cat propaganda.
There’s an old Celtic folklore of big black cats called the “Cat Sidhe” which literally means “Fairy cat” They are lucky creatures, although based on some lore they tend to linger around coffins.
Oh, I hope Germany is beautiful for u, wow!
Those “meat sculptures” by Paul Thek were so technically accomplished that the guy must have had the art world in the palm of his hand. Instead he went on to do something weirder and more interesting, and all credit to him for doing so.
Leeds United being sponsored by Red Bull is not something that I’m too bothered about right now. The company have a chequered history of changing team names and the like, but when compared to some of the dodgy owners out there then I think we’ve got off lightly.
This morning I watched the 2022 horror film Pearl and safe to say that I was blown away by it! The performance of Mia Goth in the leading role is a true knockout. Very highly recommended.
I’m sure you’re not surprised I love the gallery today, Dennis. That pitcher certainly belongs in my kitchen. I have a poster of the Susini piece on my wall, and have admired several versions of it. Haven’t seen that Paul Thek piece, very nice. The Logothesis is lovely as well. And Stuart Brisley, eeewwww. Talk about suffering for your art.
Read a very entertaining Brian Evenson about an amusement park ride. Turns out it first appeared in this anthology:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56703540-tales-from-omnipark
Bill
I cracked up at the lung cancer ashtray. I think my favorite was the Waliszewskiej paintings. The anatomical Christ was amazing too, tragic and fascinating to consider a God’s internal organs. Loved today’s post. Best to my fellow commenters. Have a great weekend, Dennis.
Also, I want to say my book, Phallic Symbols, officially released today. I’m excited. The whole thing has been a lot of fun so far. It’s been a good experience.
Hi Dennis! My name is Paolo Iacovelli, my debut novel, The King of Video Poker, is coming out with Clash Books on July 9th. I’d love to send you a copy! Let me know if that could be possible.
Thanks!
I do feel somewhat better today, but I’m still sneezing a lot, and I’m exhausted and spacey. I’m just trying to rest and relax, but I’m pretty bored – I have already watched 2 movies today.
Really liked Alice Maio Mackay’s T BLOCKERS, which I watched last night. She’s an Australian trans woman who made three micro-budget horror films when she was 19. This is the most recent. Gregg Araki and New Queer Cinema are big influences, but she’s making protest cinema while hanging on to her playfulness. There are some rookie mistakes that can be chalked up to the $10,000 budget, but I hope she’s able to keep working and move up. (There’s a subplot about the main character’s experience with a scummy con artist who claims to be a film producer – they’re universal.)
Any plans for the weekend? I hope that by Sunday, I’m well enough to get out.
Hey Dennis. Yeah, I totally agree with you about language being inadequate. I think a lot of writers really find their strength when they find out that writing is necessarily about telling the truth, and the inherent artificial nature of art is what makes it good.
Unfortunately I do have the feeling that everything is going wrong. I feel invisible in a sense, but in different contexts it’s like everyone is looking at me like I’m insane. In a way I’m accepting it all, but just as strong is the urge to fight back and to try and rectify everything. I have this fantasy about quitting university and renting a room further into the city, but I’ve already done two out of three years and there will be a lot of student fees to pay back anyway so I might as well do another year. I really don’t know what tomorrow brings, and I can’t afford to be negative about it because I really do have things to look forward to, just a lot of shit to wade through as well. I also found it funny when I thought today that Rimbaud was the same age as me when he wrote ‘A Season in Hell’ one summer when he retreated from the city to his parents house in the country. So if everything goes wrong this summer I can at least pretend I’m writing ‘A Season in Hell’.
Hey Dennis, I’m back again. Great post today! The anatomical Venus feels almost spookily timeless. Thanks for the response about when you were outed. Good on that psychiatrist for being cool at least. Parents can be rough. I used to be a little bitter that, despite being the more traditionally “high-achieving” child, I’ll probably always be the disappointment in my parents’ eyes. But I’ve mostly gotten over that thankfully.
We’ve been in New Orleans for two weeks now. Enjoying it so far, but the drivers here are terrifying. I thought I was prepared coming from Memphis, but I was wrong. Luckily we live in a walkable area. Took my daughter swimming for the first time today which was a lot of fun!
Have you ever played incremental games? My partner introduced them to me several months ago and now I’m addicted to Kittens Game, though it’s kind of objectively boring lol. The first one he got me into was The Barnacle Goose Experiment, which was much quicker to finish and really intriguing conceptually.
Have a great weekend!
Sorry usually I dont type Fridays but I got my new car today!! Lets hope I dont crash and become a bunch of internal organs
although preferably i’d like to be “Andrea Hasler Next of Kin, 2014”
Rushed comment sorry! Spent to long fawning over another commenters cat.
C ya!! (also u better make time to listen to failure *wink*)
also your wrong, close though. I saw planet of the apes 3. Not too bad Cinematography.
Looking forward to the new book Dannis
Look up the BBC program ‘Take Hart’ I entered lots of pictures when I was a boy… cut ups for something they called ‘The Gallery’ but they didn’t like them..
(if this massage appears 3 times it’s no my faulting in the previous message i used a profanity…. cheap accents…. so ive gone posher for you and cleaner)
Q: HOW MANY DID IT TAKE TO CHANGE THE STUCK LIGHT BULB OF JEFFREY DAHMER? A: ONE BUT YOU JUST NEEDED TO GIBLE IT!
XXX
ref the Dahmer joke….
I suppose that would be an un-screw?
If you wait long enough you just don’t want it no more… or you forget what you came here for… it isn’t what it use to be… there’s been no light for a while… and the other no longer makes me smile….
The book sounds brilliant Dennis… thanks for the post
Hey, Dennis! Really interesting post today. I was compelled to track down a video for ‘The Body is a Big Place’. It’s a really cool performance piece. Re: your dad giving you beige sweaters for your birthdays – how boring! I think I would’ve tried to re-purpose them and turn them into some sort of art. I’m not sure how, exactly, but I like the idea. Do you have any big plans for the weekend? Here’s a song I’ve been listening to a lot today: https://youtu.be/lQCAPNSu-wA?si=2IWJbk1G24M_w0sR
I don’t actually know if there are giraffe shaped vapes but the point would be that I’d take a normal vape and arts-and-craft it into a giraffe. I think gifts where you just buy (unless you’re getting someone books or something utilitarian {likes pots and pans}) aren’t really gifts at all. There should be some element of creation/thought involved. So even if they are a thing I’d try to make them instead. Good to know about the giraffes. Now I know what to do for a card for you if (hopefully when) we meet. Yeah the romanticisation of Leroy annoys me too. I truly do understand the appeal of other identities but, say, Pessoa managed to do it without being that spiteful and toying with people like that. My weekend is feeling busy, still working on a draft that was due today to refine it. It tastes and smells good because weekends are when I allow myself to really cook and not just do pasta or chicken breasts like I have to do during the weekdays. Is your weekend fun, shy and outgoing?
Your hope paid off! Nobody hit Oscar yesterday, and hopefully nobody hits Oscar today either. Today I’ve got, uh, let’s see — Fred Flintstone breaking the fourth wall by pointing at ‘you’ and saying ‘(hi)m Dennis.’
Internal organs! These are all great, but there’s something quite charming about ‘Penetration’. I think I might just want to grab them. Semi-related, but I actually had a wee stint of teaching dissections (rats), and it was a running joke that pretty much every single time a new student would do it they’d say something like ‘THAT’S the liver???’ — it’s so much bigger than you might think!
Ah, damn. Fingers crossed that you’re able to get far away from the weaselly scumbag as quick as possible. For whatever you and Zac work on next you both deserve a producer that’s a dream to work with as some sort of cosmic karma. Pub was actually surprisingly fine? I don’t really like pubs either (I think we spoke about this once before haha), but we found a quiet booth, had some nice cider (!!), and went home pretty much sober after a long catch-up — so I’m calling it a success! I’m actually reading ‘Can the Monster Speak?’ by Paul B. Preciado at the moment, and although I’m only 10 or 15 pages in so far it’s really, really good and definitely luxurious. I hope you have a great weekend, whatever that weekend ends up being!