Vivisectionary

by Kate Lacour

What if lactating snakes gestated inside fetuses? What if factory-farmed pigs were bred as giant, insentient cubes? What if the human spine generated methamphetamine capsules? These single page sequential images illustrate these and many other marvelous, hideous, enigmatic physiological mysteries. Each comics sequence is stitched together (pun intended) by a narrative thread that forms a strange and mesmerizing voyage through the body. 

Genres: Comics, Art, Graphic Novels, Horror, Fantasy, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction

138 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 20, 2019

About the author

Kate Lacour is an American illustrator and cartoonist based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her art and comics are known for their science book aesthetics and body horror.
Lacour studied biology and psychology at the University of Chicago and Oberlin, and Art Therapy at the School of Visual Arts. She is also a self-taught taxidermist and a member of the Louisiana Taxidermists’ Association. Additionally, she is the founder of NOLArts Learning Center, a nonprofit serving young people with diverse abilities.

Reviews

[Bill Hsu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lacour's lovingly textured art evokes vintage natural history or medical illustrations. The hallucinatory transformations and visual puns remind me a little of Jim Woodring. Look forward to more from her.

[Sara Tantlinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

So strange. So unique. I think I'll definitely get some wonderfully weird story ideas from the rather magnificently fascinating, macabre, odd art. Great for anyone who is interested in body horror, in particular.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird, wonderful, and disconcerting. I dare you to look at this and keep a straight face.

[Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surreal, bizarre, and vulgar are what come to mind after reading this, it’s like a scientific textbook from nightmarish reality. The artwork is simple yet effective and leaves you feeling disquieted, Kate Lacour is a skilled artist with a wonderfully eccentric imagination.

[Rel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though-provoking and hauntingly beautiful.

I saw the PW review of this and wanted to read it immediately.

And then the author emailed me at work (she’s local!) to recommend we buy it, and I got to proudly tell her I had already picked up several!

This book is awesome and gross and beautiful and fun and would probably amuse most fans of speculative fiction, weird fiction, horror, etc.

[Eli Poteet · Rating 4 out of 5]

this one made me a tad rather uncomfortable, a handful of times- BUUUUUT its real unique and presents a thick presentation of art displays. i took the time to witness each piece as an independent slide as well as its placement in the collections body (pun intended!). the cover style captured my visceral attention while the contents challenged my stability and awareness in some aspects of global body politics. i hope never to stumble upon some of these pages ever again yet just as many are amazing pieces i would present framed in my own personal gallery.

[John Madera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kate Lacour's Vivisectionary's graphic graphic violations and transformations of the human body, its various visceral, imaginative, horrifying, disturbing, and sometimes gross mutations, amputations, mutilations, etc., finally cohere into what might be called a body horror treatise or a gory phantasmagoria or deranged atlas of metamorphoses or all of the above.

[Berna Labourdette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un cómic sin palabras, que simula ser el diario de un resurreccionista, mediante láminas que describen paso a paso extraños procesos de partogénesis y mitosis humana, además de inyecciones, transplantes, injertos imposibles, híbridos, en una mezcla de libro de ciencias y diario de. Dr. Frankenstein. Interesante y perturbador a partes iguales. 

[AN · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deeply disquieting. At first the images seem amusing and silly but after page upon page of illustrated weirdness, the experience becomes uncomfortable and sometimes horrifying. This pushed some boundaries I wasn't aware I had.

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

At varying and inconsistent turns clever, ribald, tacky, and intuitive, VIVISECTIONARY knits together the percolating half-dreams of a child fascinated with nature and the self-effacing grandeur inhabited by an adult strung-out on all manner of mind-altering delicacies. There is, regrettably, little organization or organizational motif to this collection of awkward artwork, but for readers intrigued at the prospect of supplementing fantasy for the scientific method, the result is likely good enough.

Clever. As when the author queries what would happen if the curated meats that typically accompany household sandwiches were sliced from earthworms the size of pythons. Or, in viewing a young mother's giving away of her heart during pregnancy, as a triptych dictates that with each successive phase of her womb's growth, so also does her heart shrink.

Ribald. As with the author's visualization of a lost fetus situated atop an hourglass, only to liquefy, three images and three languages later, into otherwise and presumably perceptibly benign menstrual bleeding. Or, in the dueling imagery a bird, caged, and a heart, housed in a human ribcage; the bird is set free, but heart is not.

Tacky. As through the frequently occurring, and fundamentally opaque, references to narcotics and needle use; some are playful, as when implying the horn of a unicorn is worthy of sampling, but most others lack context or clarity of perspective to possess any manner of aesthetical adroitness.

Intuitive. As to query the interplay of the color and the shape and function of things: Are bats not simply rats with wings? Is one's labor, in his or her fealty to a corrupt institution, merely the supping of grounded remains of those whom have failed in the past? What if mythic tales of ancient Greece's belly-goddess, Baubo, were real, such that a woman's breasts were to manifest as her eyes?

VIVISECTIONARY breaks apart and pieces back together the sensory elements and the biological traits often associated with them. There is an overwhelming emphasis on sexual reproduction, drug abuse, and the general prettifying of the undramatic but ultimately (culturally) unseemly. The book is a creative jaunt without direction, and while this may guide readers toward new and delicious intricacies, it will, more often than not, leave them lost.

[Hilary "Fox" · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a cool book!

Kate Lacour brings a scientific eye and a zoologists understanding of biology and anatomy to the macabre and bizarre. Each page is a separate examination of the unusual and grotesque. Unicorn horn injections and self-induced conjoined twins litter these pages. The creation of a pearl in your ring finger, and a snake coiled within the human circulatory system is in another. How about crocheting a human brain from ground beef?

This collection is not for the faint of heart. There were images that involved scalpels and eyes that made me cringe, but that's kind of the point. This is meant to be a medical study of the bizarre, and this is bound to happen, isn't it? My fault for picking up a book titled Vivisectionary.

The afterward allows Kate Lacour to explain what she wished to achieve in this book in a brief meditation on the history and nature of dioramas and what they represent for the viewer. I would say Lacour managed to capture what they sought out to beautifully, and I would love to find some of their other books in the future. Even if I cringe a bit looking at some of the drawings.

[John Gustafson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anatomical drawings, especially those from another era, can range from uncanny to nightmare fuel. Lacour perfectly captures that unease and then pushes it a few notches further with transformations that reveal fine lines between the erotic and the grotesque, the sacred and the psychotic, the prosaic and the menace hiding right behind it. Highly enjoyable for the right reader, probably miserable for the wrong one.

[Gizmo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kate Lacour hace magia en este libro. Transforma el cuerpo, lo retuerce con la forma de los sueños, lo vomita sin asco y se traga el vómito para ver si nutre el cuerpo. No sé si body horror es la etiqueta adecuada pero se le acerca bastante. Lo pienso cerca de cosas como el Codex Seraphinianus. Ein Orbis Pictus des Universums der Phantasie. y un poco de Joan Cornellà pero con un toque único de cinismo muy interesante.

[Erin]

Basically wordless, without even a pictorial narrative to tie it all together, I felt out of my depth. Some images and sequences were fascinating, some disturbing, but all require the reader to fashion some kind of explanation or story for what you’re seeing.

My favorite illustration was the meat grinder. I felt I could grasp that one, and it was one of the few spreads that seemed to be making sense out of life instead of gently unraveling the threadbare fabric of existence. There were also a few great moments that picked apart menstruation and motherhood.

[A. David David Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel as though, if I understood this book better, I would appreciate it more. Undoubtedly, there is high skill and some moments that I could discern of impressive insight — but I’m left feeling that I, as the reader/viewer, am the one who is too limited to understand the messages and nuances of all the plates. It’s something to explore further at a later point and with greater experience, perhaps, but I could not artificially rate it higher simply because it was indiscernible.

[Rachel Copeland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I shelve a lot of books (I work at a bookstore), and by the time this ended up on the graphic novel shelf, we already put in several more orders so my coworkers and I could buy it for Christmas. My coworker said "I have several questions... but I don't want answers." If you love disturbing art (think Black Hole by Charles Burns), this is the book for you.

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very much up my alley, this collection of illustration is bizarre yet scientific, surreal and sexual, yet social commentary, grotesque and disturbing, yet beautiful in attention to detail, while showing interesting ideas. Kate Lacour states she was obsessed with dioramas, how things inside them were both alive and dead and these illustrations demonstrate that idea well.

[Darcy Roar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absolutely beautiful & entirely macabre, Lacour succeeds in their goal of capturing the story/ no story mysterious tension of dioramas and the natural history museum with aplomb. I am left both feeling unsettled & intrigued.

It's a weird one y'all, very NSFW, but worth a flip through for those with a strong stomach for body horror.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilariously grotesque, depraved and sexual, this experimental art depicts the gluttonous, mesmerizing, sad, feeble, repulsive sides of human and nature. Like a car accident or "Piss Christ," it's hard not to look. You will want a shower and some soap and to maybe say a few "Hail Marys" after reading this.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book. Surprised me and shocked me and stunned me.

The blurb on Goodreads looked interesting, so I added it to my TBR on a whim. Best whim ever.

I saw pictures of combinations and perspectives I never could have imagined possible. Not even close.

I don't even know what more to say about this book except that it's fascinatingly bizarre and horrible in the best way possible.

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

very interesting idea, but meh on some of execution. some of it feels like illustrated shitposts in a compelling way, and some feels like fake deep commentary - feels like you're seeing the vibe of social media in a very different context? I think I'd pick up more from this author just to see if it was done better.

cw drugs, needles, gore, self harm, abortion, etc etc...

[tinaathena · Rating 5 out of 5]

This artwork is extraordinary, morbid, detailed, grotesque, gorgeous, provocative, etc.,I have been picking up this book every couple of days and start my casually flipping through the pages and then end up engrossed in the details and themes. Very very cool stuff.

[Virginia]

This book is seriously so weird.

I recommend it as long as you aren’t easily grossed out and aren’t somewhere you can’t look at bizarre, explicit and lewd diagrams of the weirdest things.

So weird.

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s weird... but I like it.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

A treat!

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exquisitely drawn and captivating. Kate Lacour reigns as one of the most original and important illustrators of the era. More, please!

[jedioffsidetrap · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creepy & macabre, sometimes gratuitously obscene... but I really appreciate the style, didactic & scientific while taking in an aesthetic, surreal dimension.

[Eunice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delightfully bizarre.

[Anne Lutomia · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and bizarre way of conceptualizing biology. Never heard of vivisectionary until now.

[Chris Norton]

Disturbing.