The history of art is full of flesh: carnal scenes of flesh delight while positivistic images of science bare the human body on the operating table and Christian depictions of temptation and torture warn of the evils of fleshly pleasure. These are some of the connotations carried by the aesthetics of flesh. Based on a three-day symposium at the State Academy of Fine Arts, Stuttgart, Aesthetics of the Flesh traces the aesthetic concept of flesh in four sections: “Cut Power Matter,” “Form Cannibalism,” “Flesh Skin Surface,” and “Word Flesh Thought.” Essays inform from perspectives as diverse as art history, religion, psychoanalysis, psychology, materialist philosophy, phenomenology, surgery, film studies and literary studies. Contributors include Jennifer Allen, Sabeth Buchmann, Annett Busch, Nils Büttner, Marcus Coelen, Discoteca Flaming Star, Helmut Draxler, Felix Ensslin, Mechthild Fend, Susanne Leeb and Christoph Menke.