Victoire Gonzalvez

Victoire Gonzalvez’ installation can be conceived as a reinterpretation of the anatomical Venus. These wax models created at the beginning of the 18th century to teach medicine – dissectable female bodies molded from cadavers – had an oddly eroticized appearance. Used to teach anatomy exclusively to men, these écorchées with exposed organs reflected a whole tradition of belief in a dirty, immoral woman, despite her apparent purity. The references to marriage in „Translating Bodies“, especially in the wardrobe, symbolizing the contents of the bride’s trousseau, conjure up this control over a body that must not have been besmirched.

Text by Camille Velluet

November 2023