ABSTRACT
The body builder labors to erect a building on the site that was his body. As a sport, as an art, as a compound noun masquerading as a complex concept, bodybuilding relies first and foremost on an architectural metaphor. The present site of the Apollon, in Edison, New Jersey, used to be an auto body shop; it is a human body shop. The building fronts a busy commercial street lined with warehouses; huge tractor trailers rumble up and down the street at all hours. In the pages of muscle magazines, male bodybuilders whose physiques are particularly impressive are routinely compared to a variety of aesthetic forms, among them Greek statuary, Davidian figures or Rodin sculptures, ancient gods of various persuasions, classical heroes. The titles awarded in America’s most prestigious bodybuilding competition, the Mr. and Ms. Olympia, are another case in point.
