"Don't judge a book by its cover" is a maxim most frequently recited to children by adults to explain the idea that one should not judge people on the basis of appearance. This maxim captures the gist of the topic explored in Alan Hyde's Bodies of Law. Bodies of Law seeks to expose the fact that we simultaneously view a person as an entity distinct from her or his physical manifestation while our understanding and response to a person is affected by our perceptions and judgments regarding their physical characteristics.