The term “suture” refers to the act of stitching a wound closed during a surgical procedure. Looking back at the history of Western medicine from the 16th to the 18th century, surgeries were conducted in amphitheaters. Beyond the intention of demonstrating surgical principles to other surgeons, surgical operations became a form of spectacle; members of the public would gather in these amphitheaters to watch surgeries performed on prisoners, or dissections of human and animal bodies.

After the invention of anesthesia, and with the realization that large crowds filling theaters could transmit bacteria through open wounds, operating rooms gradually took on the form of enclosed, sterilized spaces as we know them today.

Moving across three different layers—the medical theater of the past, the sterilized operating room of modern medicine, and the exhibition space—audiences are positioned alternately as witnesses, spectators, or participants in the solemn procedures of contemporary medical systems.

References

• 《Suture: Rewired》