This article examines the historical development of the PhD in the discipline of history, and its Frankenstein-like transplantation into the body of fine art. It also examines the background of European iconophobia that, I shall argue, has made the assimilation of the visual arts into the modern university so problematic. Leading on from that, a major theme in this paper is examination of definitions of knowledge. Drawing on the works of phenomenological philosophers such as Croce, Dewey and Ricoeur, I argue that the artwork is a text or work that is equivalent to the written text, and, as such, it should be seen as the appropriate form for a fine art doctoral thesis.