Musée des Hospitalières: Jana Sterbak

CORPUS INSOLITE: JANA STERBAK

Musée des Hospitalières de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal

29 January 2025 - 24 August 2025

The Musée des Hospitalières de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal, renowned for its unique collections of historical, medical and religious artifacts, presents a new exhibition, Corpus Insolite: Jana Sterbak.This exhibition invites visitors to experience Sterbak’s thought-provoking works in dialogue with the museum’s collections.

Jana Sterbak is a globally acclaimed, Montreal-based artist. She explores in her works the themes of power and desire, often incorporating unconventional materials. Her works explore the themes of mortality, transcendence, and transformation, which in this exhibition are brought into dialog with the medical and religious artifacts from the museum's collection.

For this exhibition, Jana Sterbak and curator Johanne Sloan worked closely together to integrate Sterbak’s artworks into the museum’s exhibition spaces, while also selecting objects to be brought out of storage for the first time. 

For example, Sterbak’s internationally recognized Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic, (the so-called meat dress), which was first shown in 1987, has been re-made for this exhibition, and is displayed in the proximity of anatomic models and holy relics. This offers a unique opportunity to re-discover the work of Jana Sterbak in dialog with the exhibits from the museum’s collection.

In addition to the two works Sylvanus and Hot Crown, which have never before been shown in Montreal, Jana Sterbak's internationally acclaimed Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic, first exhibited in 1987, was remade for this exhibition, contrasted with the museum's anatomical models and sanctified relics. It is a long, white feminine dress with the real male chest-hair woven into it.

The sculpture of a crown which lights brightly every 80 seconds also seems to reflect on both the worldly and spiritual powers.

Also of interest are the skeleton bones displayed under the glass and looking very much like real human skeleton bones, especially in contrast with other bone remain in the same room, are actually made of chocolate. 

The Musée des Hospitalières de l’Hôtel-Dieu de MontréalThis offers a unique opportunity to rediscover the work of Jana Sterbak while, at the same time, discovering the museum's collections through an artistic imagination.

Sterbak's pieces also reflect on the human stages of life, like the closed circle and the spiral-like progression.

The top-most image in this article, curtesy of the the Musée des Hospitalières de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal.

All other photos @Nadia Slejskova

For more information visit the museum's website.

About the Musée des Hospitalières de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal

The mission of  the Musée des Hospitalières de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal is to transmit the history of Montreal and its foundation, to publicize the history of the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal, to exhibit the tangible and intangible heritage of the Hospitallers of Saint Joseph, and to explore the history of healthcare and the health sciences.

Four centuries of history can be traced through the museum’s unique collection, which is linked to the development of Montreal, to hospital, medical and pharmaceutical practices, and to religious art.

Located within Mount Royal’s protected area, in a special natural setting, the museum is a part of one of the city’s best preserved convent complexes, home to the Hospitallers of Saint Joseph. The ensemble, built in 1861 to plans by the architect Victor Bourgeau, includes the order’s original monastery and garden, the hospital, three chapels, a crypt and the museum itself, housed in the former chaplains’ residence.