Beautiful images portend patient heartbreak and pain.

• Position: Medical Science - 'Hidden Beauty: Exploring the Aesthetics of Medical Science' exhibition - Brief article

"Hidden Beauty: Exploring the ?I Aesthetics of Medical Science" is a collaborative project by artist Norman Barker and scientist Christine lacobuzio-Donahue. The exhibition asks the viewer to consider the aesthetics of human disease. The images show a dynamically powerful force of nature that acts without regard to race, religion, or culture--and present patterns of different diseases affecting various areas of the human anatomy.

There is beauty in the delicate lacework of fungal hyphae invading a blood vessel, the structure of the normal cerebellum, and the desperate drive of metastasizing cancer cells. However, appreciation of the imagery produced by disease, which smacks of modern art, is bittersweet; the viewer simultaneously will experience the beauty of the natural world and the pain of those living with these disease processes.

The 50 large-format images will leave onlookers with an appreciation of the visual beauty of the human body as well as a deepening respect for those who...