Whether there is a sense of being contained or trapped in a body, or of viewing it from the outside, these emotions are frequently externalised in creativity. This issue deals incisively with the reaction, as a woman, to the idea of all humans having a sense of being 'contained' by the body. With the delicate distinction between the homosexual and the homoerotic; with the physical effects of paintings on the body, exemplified by Francis Bacon's use of 'violence of sensations'; with gender in art based on the ideology of the society in which Degas as painter created his work; with the effect of Thomas Eakins' male nudes on late 19thcentury American society; and with the dependence of the concept of architecture on the model of a unified body. In a section representing contemporary artists, we encounter Helen Chadwick's androgynously playful creations; Kiki Smith's flayed frames and Matthew Barney's violently erotic images. Including contributions from Greg Lynn, Mark Rakatansky, Christine Battersby and Paveen Adams, this issue of the Journal of Philosophy & the Visual Arts covers in detail the question of art and the human body: the sexual, the biological and the physical. The body has had a profound influence on art and philosophy. Contains contributions, with illustrations, from respected philosophers and artists. Contrasts the historical aspect of past societies' reactions to art influenced by the body with contemporary artists' work. Philosophical essays examine human awareness of being 'contained' by a body.