François I. Luks is professor of surgery at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University and pediatric surgeon-in-chief at Hasbro Children’s Hospital. As a medical student, he drew a daily comic strip for several newspapers and later started to illustrate some of his own research publications, then those of colleagues. MedSpeak Illuminated grew out of the full semester course in medical illustration he teaches for undergraduate students at Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design. TW: @FrancoisLuks IG:@rhodeside.art
MedSpeak Illuminated: The Art and Practice of Medical Illustration by François I. Luks is a remarkable volume that expertly brings together humanities and science. Luks is perfectly poised to write this book as a practicing pediatric surgeon, an artist and a teacher of medicine as well as illustration. Featuring full-color illustrations and fascinating historical notes, MedSpeak Illuminated will surprise and delight any reader with an interest in the clinical perspective or the artistic field. The volume was published this summer by Kent State University Press.
In some aspects, MedSpeak Illuminated is a how-to book. “Visual language,” a term that Luks attributes to graphic artist Christoph Niemann, is universal, intuitive and innate. Luks deconstructs this idea through many examples conveying how an illustration effectively communicates ideas and content to its audience—in this case, clinicians learning the art of medicine and understanding the intricacies of the body and its network of blood, tissue, muscle and organs. There is practical advice and techniques appropriate for the budding medical artist, and the author uses many of his own drawings to great effect. The cover itself is a labeled pictogram of a cholecystectomy, with cartoon scissors drawn near the gallbladder. In subsequent chapters, Luks deftly explains the purpose of elements like the scissors icon as well as dotted lines and block arrows from the cover image.
The book delves into the creative process of translating technical information visually, offering drawing tips covering the conception to the execution of an illustration. For instance, how should the steps of an appendectomy be portrayed through art? On one page, the appendix is shown being removed in eight panels. On another page, the appendectomy is simplified into two drawings displaying key anatomic landmarks and surgical instruments. Luks’s point is that the medical illustrator can design a graphic to explain concepts (i.e. a surgery’s sequence of steps) in different and effective ways. In order to do so, numerous techniques to make and improve medical illustrations are showcased. Particular pen strokes and textures create different depths, contours and effects, while other diagrams describe how to use shadows or orient subject matter in effective illustrations.
However, the book is much more than an instruction manual. MedSpeak Illuminated also contains a treasure trove of information related to the history of medical illustration. In an age when graphic medicine has become a well-respected art and literary genre, Luks presents an absolutely fascinating crash course of art history pertaining to medical illustration and creates a connection to the humanities. With an impressive bank of knowledge, he highlights numerous pieces, such as Thomas Eakins’s The Agnew Clinic, in the context of important figures and events (i.e. greater understanding of microorganisms based on Louis Pasteur’s work as well as the advent of aseptic surgical techniques) from that period.
Readers may get a new sense of classic art as well through Luks’s book. The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo is well-known; in the famous painting, God, surrounded by cherubs and a cloak, reaches towards a man. However, several people, among them physicians and a medical illustrator, saw distinct anatomical shapes in the fresco, namely the human brain cortex, corpus callosum and brainstem. Vincent Van Gogh’s works are also discussed according to interesting theories—that the painter may have suffered from digitalis intoxication and developed the condition “xanthopsia” of seeing yellow. As a result, some of Van Gogh’s yellow-hued paintings may have been created while he took dangerous amounts of digitalis.
Tricks of the trade from MedSpeak Illuminated: The Art and Practice of Medical Illustration: Dr. Luks shows how medical illustration uses techniques from cinema to show movement and describes how less is more when pinpointing a how-to demonstration.
All of these nuggets of knowledge enhance the experience of what would otherwise be a well-done technical book, making it intriguing to a wider audience. With its glossy pages and detailed pictures, MedSpeak Illuminated could be a fine arts encyclopedia. There is a wonderful balance of visual art to illustrate key points and examples from the text. The book contains vibrant replications of art on almost every page, from pottery pictograms dating back to 475 B.C. and anatomy plates from the 14th century to paintings by Rembrandt. Detailed captions and citations accompany every figure inviting the reader to delve further and learn more about the rich history of medical illustration.
There is also an acknowledgement of some of its historical controversies, such as the relative lack of diversity in medical illustrations. Currently, Luks asserts, an increased recognition that medical illustration has long been complicit in promoting a single (white, male) view of health and disease has begun to result in changes to practice and content. Increasing diversity and equity—in illustration and among illustrators—he argues, is ultimately good for our health.
Throughout MedSpeak Illuminated: The Art and Practice of Medical Illustration, Luks proposes that “not only does medical illustration enhance communication, [but] understanding medical illustration makes us better communicators.” A tenet of narrative medicine and medical humanities studies is to deepen empathy during the clinical encounter, and while medical illustration may seem like an esoteric subject, it provides a universal language for patients, physicians and others in the clinical world. With this excellent primer on the topic, readers gain a new appreciation for medical art and the art of medicine.—Adela Wu
Adela Wu, MD is a neurosurgery resident at Stanford University as well as an artist and writer. She has published articles and editorial illustrations for campus newspapers and blogs at Brown University, Johns Hopkins and Stanford as well as National Public Radio and ABC News. Her work has appeared in Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine. She can be found on Twitter @adelawu.