Defiant Bodies: Discourses on Intersex, 1573-2003

Copperplate engraving depicting the dissection of an intersex person's anatomy.

In the nineteenth century, as doctors became more interested in classifying and pathologizing intersex people’s bodies according to different manifestations of internal and external anatomy, printed works also began to portray intersex anatomy in increasing detail. One such example is this book, which includes several copperplate engravings depicting anatomy in various states of dissection. These images provide a strong visual contrast to earlier woodcuts, which tend to depict the whole body in an illustrative style rather than the genitalia alone in a more realistic style.