Jose van Dijck, The Transparent Body: A Cultural Analysis of Medical Imaging, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2005. [Book Review]

Jose van Dijk’s book is an exploration in two areas: the book is, according to the author, first about the cultural history of some medical imaging techniques, such as X-rays, and, second, about the role of media and art in dissemination of knowledge on medical imaging and shaping the viewers perception of body and ways in which it can be represented through medical imaging. The book consists of seven chapters and an epilogue. Each chapter analyses a certain medical technology and its history, considered from the point of view of cultural archaeology. In other words, medical imaging is discussed in terms of how it was established as a psychological and social event and influenced the way people experience their body and certain physical events, such as pregnancy, illness, death, physical anomalies.