Centenary of Index Medicus, 1879–1979

Murken attempts to explain to a wider audience how Beuys's imagery is taken from scientific and, in particular, medical themes. As if to emphasize this, the felt bookcover is designed to look like a first aid kit. Murken, despite his claim that the artist's life needs consideration, does not explain the significance felt has for Beuys (during the war Beuys was saved from certain death from exposure by being wrapped in fat and felt). Having discussed his influence on the art world, Murken goes on to introduce the basic themes in Beuys's work. He follows this with an account of Beuys's intellectual and artistic development which is largely repeated in a later chapter on the medical aspects of his work. The book ends with an edited interview with Beuys, as disjointed and confusing as Murken's text. Footnotes and illustration references in the German have at times been misplaced or omitted in the parallel English text, which includes many irritating typographical errors. Murken tries to explain Beuys's work by using superficial references to such diverse fields as the writings of Paracelsus, to alchemy, to homoeopathy, and to anthroposophy. To add to the confusion, he delights in the use of metaphysical jargon and neologisms such as "symbolloaded", "selfexperienced", "human-ness", and occasionally refers to works not actually illustrated. The art objects described are laden with medical artefacts and symbols, and these Murken describes as "multilevel" and "unmistakable" in meaning. However, they are often obscure or paradoxically banal. We are informed that Beuys aims to integrate the disciplines of art and science, although elsewhere scientific processes are seen as a deliberate contrast to the irrational. With such contradictions, one can question whether Murken's eulogy on Beuys's interpretation of medicine is anything but superficial. Patricia Hewitt Wellcome Institute