the Visible Woman

A slice of the Visible Woman.  She was revealed in 1995 - the Visible Man was revealed in 1994.  The Visible Man and Woman are part of the National Library of Medicine’s Visible Human Project.  This project seeks to present the body much like an encyclopedia.  The body is preserved, sliced, documented, and presented to the body as an educational tool. 

In this image, we see the Visible Woman as a slice in a block of ice. 

Looking at this image, I question what does it mean to be visible?  What does it require for the body’s insides to be understood?  Must there be an intrusion as violent as this to understand how the body works? where disease is located? if a particular body is normal or not?

How are our current methods of medical imaging similar or dissimilar to this slice?