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Show 147 and Bodmer witnessed emerge. Although the aquatints function as both documents and art, the illustrations remain today primarily what they have always been-works of art-and must be judged principally on this basis. When Bodmer's aquatints are viewed primarily as art, rather than as documents, the true nature of the images unfolds. As works of art, the aquatints strive for balance between the real and the ideal, intergrating both the "seeing" and the "knowing" of the events the artist had witnessed. Bodmer reorganized his information to fit an aesthetic vision, incorporating scientific accuracy with idealization to create a deeper, more complete truth. This process of reorganization and reinterpretation, the essence of art, will always produce a restructured reality. The methodology developed throughout the course of this examination was based upon a similar process of reorganization and reinterpretation of information and points to the value and usefulness of interdisciplinary investigations. Every discipline has a tendency to create its own vacuum, through which related information outside is difficult to penetrate. However, particularly in cases where standard resources are limited, such interdisciplinary methods are distinctly productive. Shared information from such divergent fields as art history and ethnology, for example, offers the potential for increasing the knowledge and understanding of each. Ultimately, understanding of Bodmer and of his aquatints rests within the eighty-one prints themselves. Each provides a glimpse into the process that had involved Bodmer in his search for synthesis. The method developed for examination of the aquatints is useful; detailed examination of image changes within individual prints permits many of the issues surrounding the |