Henry de Vries, dermatologist and professor of skin infections, has won a Bio Art & Design (BAD) Award. A prize of 25,000 Euros to work out, together with artist Kuang-Yi Ku, the project Filthy Anatomy, which will be exhibited at the end of this year in MU, Hybrid Art House, located in Eindhoven.

The Filthy Anatomy Book

The Filthy Anatomy Book is an inclusive anatomy book by Henry de Vries and Kuang-Yi Ku. It aims to challenge medical patriarchy and heteronormativity of anatomical education by expanding these to include speculative queer anatomies, and to unfold the anatomical interpretation of sexual minorities. Moreover, it explores the symbiosis between humans and microorganisms, resulting in ambiguous body borders.

Jury ruling

The jury welcomes this re-examination of how we look at our bodies and how parts of the medical profession remain stuck in educational resources, like the foundational Atlas of Human Atonomy that dates back to the fifties of the 20th century. The team will, in a decentralized way, re-make this book into an Atlas of Filthy Anatomy, signaling how knowledge building is practiced and re-evaluating textbooks and the power they are grant. The jury was compelled by the notion of microbial exchanges during sex acts that are unknown or misunderstood. This inspired the memory of a quote from Alfred Kinsey (1966), who wrote: ‘the only unnatural sex act is that which you cannot perform’.

Background information Henry de Vries

Henry de Vries is dermatologist and Professor of skin infections at the University of Amsterdam. He works at the University Medical Centre Amsterdam (Amsterdam UMC), the Public Health Service (GGD Amsterdam), and is an expert at the Dutch Institute for Public Health (RIVM). Henry is a specialist in clinical, epidemiological and diagnostic aspects of STI’s and emerging skin infections. His research topics focus on: STI in men who have sex with men (MSM), biomedical and behavioral interventions to cure HIV and STI transmission, gonorrhoea, lymphogranuloma venereum, HPV related anal dysplasia, cutaneous leishmaniasis, and leprosy.

Source: read the original article about the BAD jury’s decision here.