What does a psalm from the Hebrew Bible have to do with this issue's marquee theme, "Bodies in Literature"-other than our primordial fascination with sex and violence? Since the earliest days of civilization, writers have shared with painters, sculptors, dancers, and actors-even more than a solicitude for their own bodies-an affinity for bodies other than their own, and the nine authors included in the current issue showcase an astonishing array of texts that investigate the embodied human condition. Throughout art history, there is a long tradition of male painters using female models for their portraits-including Henri Matisse, as discussed in Najwa Ali's essay "Matisse / Odalisque / Modernity," and Egon Schiele, who appears in Zsuzsa Takács's poem "On Vision."