In this post, I'll look at the cutaways of British illustrator Stephen Biesty, whose love of cross-sections was inspired by the work of L. Ashwell Wood (featured in Part 2). Where many cutaway artists might just show the insides of a machine in a very static way, Biesty slices and dices, exposing vehicle internals like a cut loaf of bread. Biesty garnered fame in the early 1990's with his series Incredible Cross-Sections through DK, with 3.5 million copies sold.
What I love about Biesty is how fearless he is with his subjects for cross-sections; he's done everything from vehicles to castles to the entire human body. But he's not just illustrating static diagrams, he's telling stories through the cross-sections. He has a cast of hundreds of characters you need a magnifying glass to find, winding their way through a daily routine in medieval England or aboard a Spanish galleon. For example, in the case of Castle, there's a spy who starts outside the castle on the title page, then works his way through the castle as Biesty slices it up, and eventually leaves on the last page.
