Included in the book are essays by Evan Michelson (star of Science Channel’s hit show "Oddities") featuring never before published photographs of the catacombs of Palermo; Simon Chaplin (head of The Wellcome Library) on public displays of corpses in Georgian England, Caitlin Doughty of the popular Ask a Mortician web series on demonic children and the witch trials of Europe, 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, fin de siècle death-themed Parisian cafes, post-mortem photography, eroticized anatomical wax models, taxidermied humans and other animals, Santa Muerte, “artist of death” Frederik Ruysch, and much more.
Thanks to all of you who supported this project on Kickstarter, both for your support and for your patience; we sincerely hope you will share our enthusiasm for the final product--which took more time than we had anticipated--and share our conviction that quality of the final product merits the wait. This is a book unlike any that has yet existed, with nearly 30 essays representing the idiosyncratically brilliant work of a dizzying array of rogue scholars, artists, makers, writers, museologists, morticians and academics. It is also lovely, readable, and filled with over 170 illustrations, many of them never before published, and many in full color. You can get a preview of the finished product in the sample spreads pictured above, from an advance dummy we just received from the publisher.
If you live in the NYC area, we would love to raise a glass with you at our book release party (with free beer by Brooklyn Brewery and cocktails and music by Friese Undine!) on Friday, April 18th. Full details on the party--and a full table of contents for the book--follow. We hope very much to see you there! You can also pre-order copies of the book by clicking here.
Morbid Anatomy Anthology" Book Release Party
Sponsored by Brooklyn Brewery and with cocktails and music by Friese Undine
Date: Friday, April 18
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: Free
Location: Observatory(543 Union Street, Brooklyn; enter via Proteus Gowanus Gallery)
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
** Copies of The Morbid Anatomy Anthology will be available for sale and signing
Please join us for a night of drinks, music and books to celebrate the release of "The Morbid Anatomy Anthology," a 500 page, lavishly illustrated, hardbound and full-color book featuring 28 essays based on some of the most memorable lectures hosted by Morbid Anatomy since 2008. Many of the authors will be on hand to raise a glass with you and sign your copy of the book!
Included in the book are essays by Evan Michelson (star of Science Channel’s hit show "Oddities") featuring never before published photographs of the catacombs of Palermo; Simon Chaplin (head of the Wellcome Library) on public displays of corpses in Georgian England, Caitlin Doughty of the popular Ask a Mortician web series on demonic children and the witch trials of Europe, 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, fin de siècle death-themed Parisian cafes, post-mortem photography, eroticized anatomical wax models, taxidermied humans and other animals, Santa Muerte, “artist of death” Frederik Ruysch, and much more.
Table of Contents:
- What a Wonderful World, David Pescovitz, Boing Boing
- Giuliu Camillo: Renaissance Scholar, Con Man, and Father of the Kabbalistic Theatre, Mel Gordon, author of Voluptuous Panic and The Grand Guignol
- Staging the Unconscious, Zoe Beloff, Artist
- Memento Mori: Reflections on the Art of the Tableau, Amy Herzog, professor of media studies at Queens College
- The Birth of Venus, Joanna Ebenstein, Morbid Anatomy Founder
- Tough, Carl Schoonover, author of Portraits of the Mind
- A Philosophy of Wax: The Anatomy of Frederik Ruysch, Dániel Margócsy, professor of early modern history at Hunter College
- Naples: In The Court of Miracles, Chiara Ambrosio, Filmmaker/animator
- Ghost Images: The Curious Afterlife of Postmortem Photographs, Mark Dery, author of the upcomingThe Doubtful Guest: The Mysterious Mind and Legendary Life of Edward Gorey
- Stuffed Humans, Pat Morris, author of Walter Potter and His Museum of Curious Taxidermy
- At the [Human] Zoo: A Sampling of Ethnographic Exhibitions on the Modern World, Elizabeth L. Bradley, author of Knickerbocker: The Myth behind New York
- The Withering Crowd, Evan Michelson, star of TV’s "Oddities" and Morbid Anatomy Library Scholar in Residence
- Look Not Upon Them! Maternity and the Monstrous Imagination, Stephen T. Asma, author of Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads
- Demonic Children and Their Curious Absence in the European Witch Trials, Caitlin Doughty, of "Ask a Mortician" and founder, Order of the Good Death
- Anatomy or an Ottamy? Bodies on Show in Georgian London, Simon Chaplin, Head of The Wellcome Library
- Staging Science at Wellcome Collection: Anatomical Models in Context, Kate Forde, curator at The Wellcome Collection
- Soap Stories: The Mysterious Life and Dreadful Afterlife of the Mütter Museum’s Adipocere Body, Richard Faulk, author of Gross America
- The False Atrium: Notes on Mourning, Colin Dickey, author of Cranioklepty and Afterlives of the Saints
- Skulls and Big Rigs: The World’s Strangest Truck Stop, Paul Koudounaris, author/photographer of Empire of Death
- Empress and Lover: Personifying Death in Mexico, Salvador Olguín, scholar
- Morbid Curiosity Meets Morbid Anatomy, Richard Harris, "collector of death"
- Death and Doctor Buchan, Ross MacFarlane, The Wellcome Library
- Bound In Human Skin: A Survey of Examples of Anthropodermic Bibliopegy, Daniel K. Smith, Bookmaker
- The Devil in Three Dimensions, Ronni Thomas, creator of "The Midnight Archive"
- Anthropomorphic Mouse Taxidermy Class, Amber Joliffe, Taxidermist, Writer
- The Spiritualists / Shannon Taggart, Photographer
- On the Non-Denial Denial of Death, John Troyer, deputy director of the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath
- Hell Époque: Death-Themed Cabarets and Other Macabre Entertainments of Nineteenth Century Paris, Vadim Kosmos, The Last Tuesday Society
