I’m not actually sure if I should call Jessica Helfand’s Face: A Visual Odyssey a book. I mean, it looks like a book. It has text, divided into sentences, paragraphs, and sections. It’s on pages ...

Sharrona Pearl
Sharrona Pearl is associate professor of medical ethics at Drexel University. A historian and theorist of the face and body, Pearl has published widely in the area of Victorian visual culture, media and religion, body studies, and critical race, gender, and disability. Her most recent book, Face/On: Face Transplants and the Ethics of the Other, was published by the University of Chicago Press, in 2017. You can find her writing @tabletmag, @lilithmag, @chroniclevitae, @reallifemag, @kveller, @romper, @nursingclio, @scarrymommy, @bluntmoms, and on her website at www.sharronapearl.com.
What’s in a Face?
According to Jewish tradition, before each of us was born, we were visited by an angel who taught us all that is known and all that will be known. We were wise, in utero. And then, in the very last ...