Since its invention in the late nineteenth century the penetrating gaze of the X-ray has
changed our vision of the inside of the human body. After we started to see inside ourselves
the relationship between ourselves and our bodies changed forever. As a progression in medical
science X-ray technology was fashioned to maintain and save life. However as the contributors
to this volume show it has been a device of ruination as well. They visualise the traces and
the pattern of violence practised by the states racial capitalism colonial racism and
sexism. By juxtaposing different cases across time and space this collection demonstrates a
set of relations between civilization and ruination.
