The Morbid Anatomy Anthology

by Joanna Ebenstein (Editor), Colin Dickey (Editor)

Since 2008, the Morbid Anatomy Library of Brooklyn, New York, has hosted some of the best scholars, artists and writers working along the intersections of the history of anatomy and medicine, death and the macabre, religion and spectacle. "The Morbid Anatomy Anthology" collects some of the best of this work in 28 lavishly illustrated essays. Included are essays by Evan Michelson (star of Science Channel's hit show "Oddities") on the catacombs of Palermo; Simon Chaplin (head of the Wellcome Library in London) on public displays of corpses in Georgian England; mortician Caitlin Doughty on demonic children; and Paul Koudounaris (author of "Empire of Death") on a truck stop populated with human skulls. In addition are pieces on books bound in human skin, death-themed cafes in fin-de-siecle Paris, post-mortem photography, eroticized anatomical wax models, taxidermied humans and other animals, Santa Muerte, "artist of death" Frederik Ruysch, and much more.

Genres: Nonfiction, Death, Science, History, Essays, Medicine, Medical

491 pages, Hardcover

First published April 30, 2014

Reviews

[cee · Rating 5 out of 5]

a couple of the essays fall flat but it's overall super interesting and great to yell bits from out loud while people around you are trying to eat

[Wren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like most anthologies, this one's a mixed bag. A lot of its weirdness comes from the fact that it collects what was originally a varied lecture series. And if you're not in the scene it might be difficult to discern the tenuous theme or connection that all of these things have, other than "kind of goth," but I think the book, like the museum and blog, attempts to be a kind of "cabinet of curiosities" or w/e, and that's p. cool. It means, though, that some of these essays are super densely technical and academic, while some of them are more lighthearted and introductory, and some are just like one page of an artist introducing their work. The last category is the one that I enjoyed the least, like Richard Harris's basically just listing off his collection felt kind of useless, though I did like Zoe Beloff's discussion of her films, and the mouse taxidermy thing is super cool. The more academic stuff is interesting but difficult to get into, like I ended up only skimming the hyper-specific histories of Naples and Paris and I just absolutely did not even understand the one about Giuliu Camillo and his weird...thing. But like there's a lot of good histories of medical displays, tableaux and dioramas, waxwork, taxidermy, and anthropodermic bibliopegy that are really cool and informative. Unsurprisingly, Paul Koudounaris's and Caitlin Doughty's articles were really interesting and accessible. Some of these also feel, though, like they are ignoring or leaving out central aspects of their topic. Like Pat Morris's shitty essay about human taxidermy is kind of racist in that it like conspicuously ignores and denies how like the history of doing these kinds of things is non-coincidentally p. much entirely on the bodies of people who were considered less human or even were outright owned by others, which is like especially egregious when literally the next article after that is about the history of racist ethnographic displays. Or like the one about the mouse taxidermy class never even points out that despite being a hobby encouraged through various "boys' books" almost every single person involved in that project and in modern taxidermy art more generally is a woman.

But so anyway, this book took me a long time to work through and parts of it are p. boring but if you're into goth shit and esp. Victorian medical and entertainment history, there's a lot of cool stuff in here, too. I wish the museum was still open so I could just tell you to go there (it's easily one of the coolest places I've ever been) but I guess the book now serves as a kind of record for all these things, which makes it a weird kind of hybrid between like a coffee-table-book and more serious nonfiction.

[Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This really, really, really could have used another round of copyediting, and I was not a fan of the way it was formatted (footnotes not always on the same page as the corresponding text, descriptions of artifacts several pages before or after the picture of said artifact, or pictured artifacts not described in the essay while artifacts described in great detail not pictured at all). That being said, this is a wonderful collection of essays on a variety of subjects that invited me to contemplate mortality and death in numerous and exquisite ways. Now I need to visit the museum!

[Anne Earney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I believe I got this book through a Kickstarter campaign when it first came out, and although I was, remained and still am very interested in this kind of thing, I just never got around to reading it until this year.

It's an interesting collection of essays on with a mix of topics, some of which were completely new to me, such as Kabbalistic Theatre. There are essays about momento mori, wax figures, postmortem photographs, using the bodies of criminals for autopsy (which was to serve as an added deterrent to crime), the ability of the body to turn to soap after death, books bound in human skin, sterographs of the devil and his entourage, spiritualists, and death-themed cabarets, which finishes off the collection and may have been my favorite.

As with any collection, the quality and accessibility varies from essay to essay. Some contain a lot of copyediting errors, but not all, making me wonder if they left it up to the writers. If that is the case, now we know who is a perfectionist and who is not. Still, it didn't make for the best reading experience.

[Zach Johnson]

Quite enjoyable collection of essays on topics as varied as stuffed humans, soap corpses, the Palermo catacombs, and the strangest fin-de-siecle Paris cabarets. Ok, maybe not TOO varied, as most of them are about death in some way, but exploring a different face of it every fifteen pages or so. Some essays were overwritten and stuffy in an academic way, but a lot of them were fascinating.

[Vivienne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is generally a very enjoyable collection of essays on a variety of fascinating topics relating to death, bodies and other morbid themes. I had fun, reading not in sequence, but dipping in and out, and choosing essays in a fairly random way. On the downside a few essays were poor: I wish their writers had focused more on communicating effectively what they were trying to say, rather than, as often was the case, getting bound up in semantics and definitions. But these were rare exceptions. Most essays were thoroughly entertaining, and enlightening. I particularly liked the various pieces about stuffed things, the 19th century Paris chapters, and various essays about Italy and the lingering culture of death.

[Jared · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stunner of a collection. I've been looking forward to this since I pitched in for the Kickstarter. I'm glad it happened and this is one hell of a collection of essays gloriously illustrated throughout. The museum is going to be amazing- can't wait.

[Jac · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a cool read! The essays were so varied and well written. I would have appreciated MOAR PHOTOS, but it sent to to Wikipedia lots, which is fun. I just remembered something else I wanted to look up!

[Brett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jolly fine mélange of diversions including pieces on human taxidermy and macabre Parisian cabarets of the 19th century. A welcome addition to the parlour.

[Claudia Loureiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautifully put together and fascinating book, I'm enjoying it immensely. The illustrations are captivating and I will be buying more copies as gifts.