On Their Shoulders (A Feminine Dissection Table)
2026
Wood, furniture paint, alabaster souvenir figurines, framed colour print, museum glass
84 x 195 x 80 cm
A feminine dissection table created as a contrast to the very male-centric history of surgery and dissection. It also serves as a kind of representation of Johanna Naukkarinen’s exhibition Attractive Specimen and her artistic practice as a whole, in which she dissects historical anatomical representations of women.
Inspired by her background research into the history of surgery and dissection, the table aims to highlight the role of women in the history of medicine. As the practice of surgery evolved, opening the human body and looking inside it became the most highly valued way of gaining medical knowledge. This very male-centric practice left little room for women, who primarily shared medical knowledge about their bodies through oral tradition.
The medical knowledge shared by women with other women was often seen as secretive and mystical by male medical professionals. Through the dissection of women’s bodies, the secrets of the body could be revealed and the information brought under the academic male gaze.
The table highlights the role of women in the history of medicine, both as practitioners and as the objects of medical practices. The shape of the table also evokes the form of an altar. The photograph on the table is reminiscent of an effigy placed on top of a grave.
The table was made by sculptor Eero Nives. The shape of the tabletop was designed according to the dimensions provided by Museo Palazzo Poggi in Bologna.
Source for the historical accounts presented here:
Katharine Park: Secrets of Women: Gender, Generation, and the Origins of Human Dissection (2006)
The work in the exhibition Attractive Specimen, Galleria Mältinranta, 2026: