ILLUMANATOMY

An unusual inside look at human anatomy, featuring specially processed images that are color matched to a three-windowed viewer.

On 10 spreads, the illustrators (Carnovsky is the nom de plume of Milan-based illustrators Silvia Quintanilla and Francesco Rugi) employ slightly displaced color separations to create human figures or body segments that look blurred to unaided eyes but depict organs, muscles, and bones with clinical realism when viewed, respectively, through the small cyan, green, and red acetate filters provided on a strip in a front pocket. The scale ranges from a near-term fetus that is close to life size to extreme close-ups of an eye and an ear. Each of the full-spread “X-Ray Rooms” is sandwiched between an introductory collaged close-up preview (likewise processed) and an “Anatomy Room” that features brief narrative descriptions over smaller, labeled black-and-white versions of the main images. Students willing to flip back and forth will come away with decent understandings of the locations and functions of select organs and parts, but even if the images aren’t always all that distinct through the viewer, like the similarly designed Illuminature (also illustrated by Carnovsky but written by Rachel Williams, 2016), the visual gimmick will be the strongest draw.

A novelty item, but even casual browsers will be riveted.