VAINS, the visual art Interpretation and navigation system, is an interdisciplinary work in progress, an interactive website which offers repository, search and content recommendation tools for art content in an online environment. This paper will put the VAINS system into a historical curatorial context as well as explaining and analysing the VAINS project and its methodology, outlining our reasons for placing the body at the forefront of its navigation systems. The paper will also present a narrative of interaction with the tools we have created, showing their impact on a range of users and illustrating the value of embodiment in the context of online curation.