The film premiered in the Directors' Fortnight program at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. It was also screened in the Wavelengths program at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, and in the main slate of the 2022 New York Film Festival.
"De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem" (Latin, lit. "On the fabric of the human body in seven books") is a set of books on human anatomy written by Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564) and published in 1543. It was a major advance in the history of anatomy over the long-dominant work of Galen, and presented itself as such. The title of the movie not only gives a nod to the well known book, but also compare it's own use of anatomy imagery with the famous beautiful prints that the book have.
Named after De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem, a 16th-century book series that was one of the most influential advances in the study of human anatomy, the film explores the human body through depictions of surgeries and autopsies in multiple hospitals around Paris, including intimate close-up footage from inside human bodies.