Evolution presents a series of black and white photographs that enable a dialogue between science and art. It transforms anatomical specimens – the typological skeletons of vertebrates – into objects of visual art – contemporary sculptures. The result is a powerful pairing that profoundly illustrates the process by which life has transformed itself again and again, and how we, as humans, have come to be the way we are today.

“Take a skeleton of a man. Tilt the pelvis, shorten the femur, legs, and arms, elongate the feet and hands, fuse the phalanges, elongate the jaws while shortening the frontal bone and finally elongate the spine, and the skeleton will cease to represent the remains of a man, and will be the skeleton of a horse…” Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de (1753).

Evolution is the fruitful result of a long-term symbiotic collaboration between a professor of natural science (Dr. Jean-Baptiste de Panafieu), a photographer (Patrick Gries), and a publisher (Xavier Barral). After six month of daily shooting of over 250 skeletons belonging to various natural history museums across France and to a private collector in the Netherlands, Evolution materialized as a publication with eight co-editions in French, English (UK and US), German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and Chinese. The photo series has been exhibited in both artistic and scientific spaces in Denmark, France, Russia or China and selected photographs now form part of private art collections.

Evolution

Texts: Jean-Baptiste de Panafieu
Photography: Patrick Gries

Editions Xavier Barral Paris

The book

Spectacular, mysterious, elegant, or grotesque, vertebrate skeletons are objects of art, which carry within them the traces of several billion years of evolution.

The book Evolution features Patrick Gries' photographs, accompanied by a text written by scientist and documentarian Dr. Jean-Baptiste de Panafieu. Six months of daily shooting of over 250 skeletons at the Museum of Natural History in Paris as well as four other locations in France. The result is a powerful pairing that profoundly illustrates how we came to be what we are. Evolution steps beyond the debate and presents the undeniable truth of Darwin's theory, showing through skeletons both obscure and commonplace, but always intriguing, the process by which life has transformed itself, again and again.

When released in United States, the American publisher mentioned that Evolution was not only a great book between art and science but also a political book because its anti-creationist legacy. We can only watch today how the undeniable truth is challenged by facts distortions, fake news and obscurantism.

“Creationists’ latest wheeze, intelligent design – creationism with a college education, as Mark Twain did not say- is demolished by these pictures, which show that the skeleton, like everything else, is the product of endless tinkering, rather than a bold plan about the future by some higher being.” Steve Jones – The Guardian

It is also a tribute to generations of scientists who paved the road to progressive concepts of how our world originated and became what it is today.

“there is something uncomfortable about finding human skeleton brought back to the rank of mere species. We might think we have taken a disproportionate significance, with our social, political and economic machinations, but on an anatomical level we are nothing exceptional” Lucy Davies – The Telegraph

Skeletons Flesh Out Life’s Past: “This book belongs both to the realm of art as it does that of science and with 6 co-publishing in foreign language, has been acclaimed throughout the world. Skeletons, as “Evolution” demonstrates, provide evidence for the history of life both hard and beautiful.“
—Carl Zimmer, NY Times

A bone to pick: “Strip any creature of its flesh, and the process of evolution is laid bare. Steve Jones celebrates the stories told and the beauty revealed in the skeleton photographs of Patrick Gries.“
—Steve Jones, The Guardian

Evolution has 7 co-editions: French, German, English, Spanish, Italian, American, Japanese and Chinese. It has been sold to over 80000 copies.

The project is rooted in evolutionist theories of natural selection. It is a tribute to generations of scientists who paved the road to progressive concepts of how our world originated and became what it is today. Evolution has as its subject the scientific material familiar to 19^th Century biologists that have over recent years become largely forgotten by their modern descendants. From the smallest to the biggest vertebrate, skeletons are objects of beauty, while they carry within them the traces of several billion years of evolution.

Through the articulation of the work of the artist and the scientist, with similarities in their process, Evolution creates new space in which art and science may co-exist and educate. It provides the viewer with accessible keys to gaining further insights into both disciplines. Each skeletal subject is viewed through the lens of the other. The result is a reinterpretation of scientific subjects as sculptural compositions, repurposing their architecture and mechanic beyond education to include an element of appreciation and admiration, like that of a fine work of art.

Selection of images available for exhibition