Content area
Full text
Forces of Form: The Vrolik Museum, Laurens de Rooy, Hans van den Bogaard. Amsterdam University Press/ University of Chicago. ISBN-13: 978-9056295523, 144 pp., 150 color plates. $39.95
Among the world's anatomical museums, the Museum Vrolik in Amsterdam stands exceptionally tall. In Forces of Form, Dr Laurens de Rooy, museum curator, and photographer Hans van den Bogaard reinforce that point in both elegant and scholarly fashion. Joined by 3 other authors (Luuc Kooijmans, Annet Mooij, and Roelof-Jan Oostra), de Rooy and van den Bogaard have produced a large-format (nearly 10 3 11 inches) book that is equally suitable for the library or coffee table. Each author examines a segment of anatomical and pathologic study in The Netherlands, and indeed much of early Europe, taking the reader from the 17th to 21st centuries. Accompanying each chapter is an essay that details the historical context of a particularly dramatic specimen. Archival images show how medicine was practiced in centuries past.
Forces of Form also provides a beautiful pictorial summary of the museum as it is seen today. Displays and specimens are shown in highly artistic fashion, showcasing the depth and diversity of museum collections. Injections, wax models, plaster casts, skeletal preparations, and dried, varnished, or fixed specimens as varied as anaconda fetus, cyclopic lamb, and conjoined monkey grace the pages....