Sarah Gillett's digital artwork Not only; but also explores anatomical history through virtual reality

Sarah Gillett's web-based artwork Not only; but also, presented by Fermynwoods Contemporary Arts, is accessible online as a digital museum blending virtual reality with historical curiosity. The piece situates viewers inside a headless female body modeled after the Anatomical Venus, an 18th-century waxwork by Clemente Susini created around 1781 for anatomical study without decay. Set within a digitally rendered Rockingham Castle in Northamptonshire, the work features a recumbent woman in a purple dress, with internal organs replaced by objects from Gillett's personal collection, including a millefiori paperweight and a likeness of the Venus de Milo. Accompanied by a rewritten version of Clara H. Scott's 1895 hymn Open My Eyes, That I May See, used in seances at the castle in the 1930s, the experience is disorienting and limits interaction to slow navigation via an avatar. Gillett's creation challenges art consumption by confining exploration to the body's boundaries, offering a ritualistic space that blurs private memory and public digital forums. The work is part of Remark, a platform by ArtReview in collaboration with BACKLIT for art writing in the East Midlands.