Well covered | |
The art of JAMA. M Therese Southgate. St Louis: American Medical Association 1997 (xviii+221 pp.). ISBN: 0-8151-0994-6. |
Since 1974, M Therese Southgate, Senior Contributing Editor for the Journal of the American Medical Association, has been selecting works of art to be featured on the cover of each issue of JAMA. Her selections, plucked from all over the world and ranging from Botticelli's Madonna and Child (December 1992) to a Ghanaian copper kuduo vessel (March 1999), have proved popular with JAMA's readers, as have her essays about the artists and the context of their work. Now, by popular demand, Dr Southgate has assembled a collection of 100 of the covers and essays published in JAMA up to 1987. Some of the pictures celebrate the intersection between art, medicine and the human form. Others are gratuitous in the very best way -- spontaneous and unexpected gifts to the overburdened reader. Southgate's offering will no doubt take its place as the ultimate doctor's coffee table book, but, be warned, it's much too precious for your waiting room!
Ruth Armstrong
"He left on the altar a body of color and harmonies that falls just short of the divine."
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