Call for Papers: The Art of Death and Dying Conference, University of Houston, October 25-27, 2012

Just received word of this promising looking upcoming conference entitled "The Art of Death and Dying;" calls for work are due May 1, and full details follow:

The Art of Death and Dying, University of Houston, October 25-27, 2012
http://artofdeathanddying.blogspot.com/

The University of Houston Libraries, in partnership with the Blaffer Art Museum, the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts, the Department for Hispanic Studies, the Honors College and School of Art, will host a three day symposium titled "The Art of Death and Dying" on October 25-27, 2012.

We welcome scholars in all disciplines to submit paper proposals on literary, visual, and performing arts topics related to death and dying. Topics of the symposium include, but are not limited to:

• Depictions or interpretations of death and dying in performing and visual arts
• Depictions of interpretations of death and dying in literature
• Depictions of death and dying in film, radio, and television
• Commemoration of the dead in art, architecture and performance
• Artifacts of death and dying as represented in archival or museum collections
• Artistic depictions of the after life
• Cultural death rituals
• Cultural expressions of mourning
• Death and dying in Latin American arts and culture
• Readings of original creative material on the subject
• Performances of original material on the subject
• Presentation of original visual material on the subject
• Memorial architecture
• Cemetery design
• Analysis of an artist's, architect's, performer's, filmmaker's or writer's work related to the subject

Proposals related to death in Latin American arts and visual culture are encouraged. The organizers will accept presentations in both Spanish and English.

Papers will be selected based upon the quality of the proposal (including merit of the topic, clarity of expression, and relevance to the conference theme), the proposal’s ability to provoke critical exchange and debate, and opportunities for interaction between participants that will enable attendees to engage in a truly interdisciplinary exchange of ideas and viewpoints.

Presenters will be afforded the opportunity for their symposium paper/presentation to be published in the Texas Digital Library.

Papers will be twenty minutes in length and will be followed by ten minutes of discussion. Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted on the symposium website.

The deadline for submissions is May 1, 2012.

You can find more here. Thanks so much to friend and former boss Barbara Mathe for sending this along.

Image: Cimitero Monumentale di Milano, © Joanna Ebenstein; click on image to see much larger, more detailed version.

Morbid Anatomy Coming to Chicago: "A Journey into the Curious World of the Medical Museum," The Chicago Cultural Center, Thursday, May 3, 6 PM

For those of you in and about Chicago, I would love to see you this Thursday, May 3, at The Chicago Cultural Center where I will be giving a lecture entitled "A Journey into the Curious World of the Medical Museum" as part of a series of events supplementing the amazing looking  Morbid Curiosity exhibition. The images above--drawn from my exhibitions The Secret Museum and Anatomical Theatre--constitute a tiny sampling of the many images I will be showing in the presentation.

Full details follow; very much hope very much to see you there.

A Journey into the Curious World of the Medical Museum
An Illustrated Lecture by Joanna Ebenstein
_______


The Chicago Cultural Center
78 E. Washington Street Chicago, IL 60602
Thursday, May 3, 2012
6 o’clock PM

Abounding with images and insight, Ms. Ebenstein’s lecture will introduce you to the Medical Museum and its curious denizens, from the Anatomical Venus to the Slashed Beauty, the allegorical fetal skeleton tableau to the taxidermied bearded lady, the flayed horseman of the apocalypse to the three fetuses dancing a jig. Ebenstein will discuss the history of medical modeling, survey the great artists of the genre, and examine the other death-related arts and amusements which made up the cultural landscape at the time that these objects were originally created, collected, and exhibited.

Joanna Ebenstein is a New York-based artist and independent researcher. She runs the popular Morbid Anatomy Blog and the related Morbid Anatomy Library, where her privately held cabinet of curiosities and research library are made available by appointment. Her work has been shown and published internationally, and she has lectured at museums and conferences around the world. For more information, visit http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com

You can find out more by clicking here.

Images top to bottom, as drawn from my recent photo exhibitions The Secret Museum and Anatomical Theatre:

1. "Anatomical Venus" Wax wodel with human hair and pearls in rosewood and Venetian glass case, "La Specola" (Museo di Storia Naturale), Florence, Italy, Probably modeled by Clemente Susini (around 1790)
2. "Slashed Beauty" Wax wodel with human hair and pearls in rosewood and Venetian glass case, "La Specola" (Museo di Storia Naturale), Florence, Italy, Probably modeled by Clemente Susini (around 1790)
3. "Anatomical Venuses," Wax Models with human hair in rosewood and Venetian glass cases,The Josephinum, Workshop of Clemente Susini of Florence circa 1780s, Vienna, Austria
4. The Mütter Museum : Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Pathological model; 19th Century?
5. Wax Model of Eye Surgery, Musée Orfila, Paris. Courtesy Université Paris Descartes
6. Wax Anatomical Models in Rosewood and Venetian Glass Boxes, The Josephinum, Workshop of Clemente Susini of Florence circa 1780s, Vienna, Austria
7. Wax moulages; Probably by Carl Henning (1860-1917) or Theodor Henning (1897-1946); Early 20th Century; Federal Pathologic-Anatomical Museum (Pathologisch-anatomisches Bundesmuseum): Vienna, Austria, Austria
8. Plaster Models in Pathological Cabinet, The Museum of the Faculty of Medicine at the Jagiellonian University, Krakow
9. Skeleton and hand models for "la médecine opératoire" Musée Orfila, Paris. Courtesy Université Paris Descartes

This Monday at Observatory: Organization and Productivity for Creative Types: A Workshop with Oliver Burkeman of "The Guardian"

I am very excited about Monday's upcoming organization for creatives class with journalist Oliver Burkeman, of London's Guardian. There are a few slots still left... if you are interested, please RSVP to morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com. Hope to see you there!

Organizational workshop for creative types with Oliver Burkeman of The Guardian
Date: Monday, April 30th
Time: 7:30-9:30 PM
Admission: $20
*** Limited class size; Must RSVP to morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com to be added to class list
This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy

Do you hunger to climb the corporate ladder with ruthless efficiency, leaving your rivals in the dust as you pursue your relentless quest for wealth and power? Hopefully not, but that doesn't mean you can't borrow some tactics from such people and apply them to your own ends; to that end, today's class--taught by Oliver Burkeman, compulsive to-do-list-maker and journalist for London's Guardian--will teach creatives, freelancers, and artists how to plan and manage multiple projects, better plan their time, and, in general, feel less overwhelmed by juggling a variety of projects at one time.

Burkeman has spent much of the last few years researching and reporting on self-help culture, including the fascinating history of the "how to succeed" publishing genre, and motivational gurus from Dale Carnegie to Stephen Covey, and sifting the wheat from the chaff. (There's a lot of chaff.) Drawing on this research, this workshop will explore some fundamental principles of getting organized, managing multiple projects, overcoming procrastination, time management, and being both more productive and less stressed in the kinds of sprawling artistic/creative/freelance lives that don't get much attention in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. No cringe-inducing motivational speeches will be given; no Magic Systems for Instant Success will be promoted. Instead, we'll plunder from the world of the grinning gurus the bits that actually work – so that you'll leave equipped with a toolkit of immediately useable ways to do the stuff you're already doing, and the projects you're planning, with greater efficiency and ease.
The class will begin with an illustrated lecture and conclude with a workshop segment where students will be guided in an application of the principles; participants are encouraged to come to class with a project to organize.

Oliver Burkeman in a writer based in Brooklyn with an unhealthy interest in filing systems. He writes features and a weekly column on psychology for the (London) Guardian. His book The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking will be published by Faber & Faber in the fall.

More here.

Illustration from "Pia Desideria," Hermann Hugo, 1659

 

From Hermann Hugo's Pia Desideria of 1659; you can view the entire book by clicking here.

Via the Wunderkammer blog.

Tonight at Observatory: Fire and Smoke: A Conversation on Death and Ritual Offering with Tibetan Buddhist Tsering Phunstok

Tonight at Observatory; hope to see you there!

A Discussion on Death & Impermanence Followed by a Ritual Offering with Venerable Tsering Phunstok from Dharamsala, India
Date: Monday, April 23rd
Time: 8:00
Admission: $8 (Please note: All admission fees from tonight's event will be donated to support Venerable Tsering Phunstock, his monastery, and health projects in India)
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

What can a monk tell you about the secret of life? And how does understanding impermanence and preparing for death expand upon the secret of life? Tonight’s conversation between Venerable Tsering Phunstok– a practicing Tibetan Buddhist monk residing in India– and artist Shannon Brunette will investigate Tibetan Buddhist perspectives on death and impermanence in modern life, as well as the life of the Tibetan monk as it relates to the most basic tenets of Buddhist practice and beliefs regarding death, karma and reincarnation through conversation. Questions will also be taken from the audience.

After the talk, Ven. Tsering Phunstok will conduct a traditional Tibetan fire and smoke offering. The Smoke Offering (Sang) is a ritual practice of making vast offerings to pacify obstacles and raise awareness. It is a practice of connecting with the forces of life and establishing an open relationship with existence. It is traditionally used to create harmony, resolve karmic debts, generate vitality, success, prosperity and health in our life, in our land and in our local community. In this purifying ritual edible food, poison-less trees, flowers, fruits, grains, clothes as well as other things are burned to create a smoke cloud offering. This is an offering for both the living and the dead – and for all spirits.

Buddhists believe that giving without seeking anything in return leads to greater spiritual wealth; Buddhists call this generosity and giving Dāna. All admission fees from tonight’s event will be donated to support Tsering, his monastery and health projects in India. We are asking that you share your generosity further at the completion of the ritual offering.

Venerable Tsering Phuntsok has been a practicing Buddhist monk since entering the Palyulchoekhorling Nyingmapa Buddhist monastery in Bir, India, in 1987 at age 16. For the first 17 years he studied and practiced in the Nyingmapa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, receiving training in meditation, Buddhist scripture and philosophy, tantric ritual, lama dancing and music. He has received many tantric empowerments and sutra teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama and many other High Lamas, including late H.H. Penor Rinpoche. In the last several years he has worked on health related projects for his monastery as well as overseeing his nephew and nieces. He currently makes his residence in Dharamsala, India in the foothills of the Himalayas; his home is less than a minute walk from the Temple and residence of the H. H. Dalai Lama. Currently, he facilitates cultural exchange programs between the Tibetan community and US university students who come to Dharamsala to volunteer with Lha Charitable Trust, a local social work agency devoted to improving the lives of Tibetan refugees and local Indians.

Shannon Brunette has lived and worked in Brooklyn, NY since 1998 and her beloved hometown is St. Paul/Minneapolis, MN. She received her Masters of Fine Arts at the School of Visual Arts in 2006. Currently, she is exploring a new body of work relating to cultural exchange opportunities, from Alaska video artist-in-residence focusing on climate change to a 5-week international fellowship in exchange with the traditional craftspeople of Orissa, India to volunteer work in Dharamsala with Lha Charitable Trust. Utilizing film and video as a tool to investigate the past, present and future through a poetic and complex interplay between images, to offer an opportunity for reflection and meditation. Shannon captures vignettes from mundane to beautiful and editing in a collage-like style, she explores the nature of fragmented memory, triggered by temporality and impermanence.

More info here.

This Weekend at The 2012 Congress for Curious Peoples: Panoramas! Baroque Television Evangelism! Human Zoos! Frederik Ruysch! Religious Theatre!

This weekend at Coney Island! Hope very much to see you there.

SYMPOSIUM: THE 2012 CONGRESS FOR CURIOUS PEOPLE
Saturday and Sunday, April 21st and 22nd

SATURDAY APRIL 21st

11:00 – 12:00: Keynote Addresses

• Joanna Ebenstein, Morbid Anatomy Library
• Aaron Beebe, Coney Island Museum

12:00 – 1:00: Lunch

1:00 – 3:30: Immersive Amusements: Cosmoramas, Cycloramas and Panoramic Illusions: Panel discussion moderated and introduced by Aaron Beebe, The Coney Island Museum

• Suzanne Wray
• Sara Velas, The Velaslavasay Panorama
• Jessica Routhier, The Saco Museum
• Russell Potter, Rhode Island College
• Denise Blake Oleksijczuk, Simon Fraser University

4:00 – 5:00: The Business of the Dead: Frederik Ruysch as an Entrepreneurial Anatomist, Lecture by Daniel Margocsy, Hunter College

5:00: Christmas in America: Miss Velma and the Evangelist Spectacle: Screening of “Christmas in America,” an early 1970s television special by Miss Velma, early TV evangelist, introduced by Daniel Paul

SUNDAY APRIL 22

11:00 – 1:00: Religion and Spectacle: A panel with discussion moderated and introduced by Joanna Ebenstein, Morbid Anatomy Library

• Paul Koudounaris, author of Empire of Death
• Shannon Taggart, Photographer
  
• The Venerable Tsering Phunstok
• Colin Dickey, author of Cranioklepty and Afterlives of the Saints
• Salvador Olguin, Borderline Projects

1:00 – 2:30: Lunch and Sideshow Visit

2:30 – 3:30: Traveling Ethnographic Shows and Human Zoos, a lecture by Elizabeth Bradley

3:30 – 5:30: Theater Rethunk: An Alternative History of the Theatrical: A panel with discussion moderated and introduced by Chris Muller

• Amy Herzog, Queens College
• Colin Nightingale, Senior Producer of Punchdrunk, Sleep No More
• Alex Harvey, Freelance Director/Adapter
• Chris Muller, New York University
• Dick Zigun, Founder of Coney Island USA

Tickets for the symposium are available here; for tickets to individual events and lectures, click here; 10-day Congressional Passes--which provide access to all events!--are available here. All events take place at 1208 Surf Avenue in Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York; you can map it here. See you there!!!

Hidden Stories: What do Medical Objects Tell and How Can We Make them Speak? 16th Biennial EAMHMS Conference Berlin, September 13-15 2012

I am very excited to announce the final lineup for this year's EAMHMS--aka European Association of Museums of the History of Medical Sciences-- conference taking place September 13-15 in Berlin, Germany at the fantastic Museum of Medical History at the Charité, pictured above!

Full details below. Hope to see you there.

Hidden Stories: What do medical objects tell and how can we make them speak? 16th Biennial EAMHMS Conference
Berlin Museum of Medical History at the Charité, Charitéplatz 1, D-10117 Berlin,
13 – 15 September 2012
The XVI EAMHMS Conference
European Association of Museums of the History of Medical Sciences
Berlin, September 13 - 15, 2012

PROGRAMME

Thursday, 13 September 2012: Beginning in the ‘Hörsaalruine’ of the Berlin Museum of Medical History

10.00 - 13.30 Arrival of Participants, Registration and Refreshments
11.00 + 12.30 Guided tours through the museum (a look behind the scenes)
14.00 - 14.30 Opening speeches

14.30 - 15.30 Session 1: Introduction, getting started …

• Robert Jütte, Stuttgart (Germany): Exhibiting Intentions. Some Reflections on the Visual Display of a Culturally Purposeful Object
• Thomas Söderqvist, Copenhagen (Denmark): Is the ‘things talk’ metaphor really useful? Or does it conceal a deeper understanding of our material interaction with things?

15.30 - 16.00 Coffee and Tea

16.00 - 16.15 Walk to the Institute of Anatomy (Oskar Hertwig-Lecture Hall)

16.15 - 18.15 Session 2: Object biographies (I)

• Sophie Seemann, Berlin (Germany) A friend’s skull – gazing in a patient’s room in 1757
• Christa Habrich, Ingolstadt (Germany): A Mystery of a Platinum-made Cystoscope
• Lisa Mouwitz, Gothenburg (Sweden): Looking through the nail
• Jim Edmonson, Cleveland (USA): The art of extrapolation: following the trail from patent number to a revolution in surgical instrument design and manufacture

18.15- 19.15 Guided tours through the Anatomical Teaching Collection or the nearby
Zootomical Theatre

19.30 - 23.00 Conference Dinner in the ‘Hörsaalruine’

9.00 - 10.30 Session 3: Object biographies (II ) – waxes

• Marion Maria Ruisinger, Ingolstadt (Germany) Christus anatomicus
• Sara Doll, Heidelberg (Germany) Models of Human Embryogenesis. The search for the meaning of wax reconstructions
• Michael Geiges, Zürich (Switzerland) Wax Moulage Nr. 189. From teaching aid to the patients‘ story by an unusual research document

10.30 - 11.00 Coffee and Tea

11.00 - 12.30 Session 4: Teaching

• Shelley McKellar, London (Canada) Challenging Students with Toothkeys and Scarificators: Experiences with Object-Based Teaching in History
• Alfons Zarzoso, Barcelona (Spain) Teaching medical history through the material culture of medicine
• Stefan Schulz, Bochum; Karin Bastian, Leipzig (Germany) Object-based, Research-oriented Teaching in Seminars and Exhibition Projects

12.30 - 14.00 Lunch, Coffee and Tea

14.00 Walk to the nearby ‘Museum für Naturkunde’

14.30 - 15.30 Guided tours in smaller groups through the ‘Museum für Naturkunde’

15.30 - 17.40 Session 5: Research

• Thomas Schnalke, Berlin (Germany) Divas on the Catwalk. Some thoughts on research with objects in medical history
• Claire Jones, Worcester (Great Britain) Identifying Medical Portraiture: The case of Andrew Know Blackall
• Julia Bellmann, Heiner Fangerau, Ulm (Germany) Evolution of Therapeutic Technology: Industrial archives and collections as sources for historians of medicine
• Benôit Majerus, Luxembourg (Luxembourg) The Material Culture of Asylums Supported by Verein der Freunde und Förderer der Berliner Charité e.V.
• Nurin Veis, Melbourne (Australia) Stories from Asylums – Discovering the Hidden Worlds of the Psychiatric Services Collection

17.40 - 18.30 Transfer to the boat pier ‘Märkisches Ufer’

19.00 - 22.15 Spree Cruise (Berlin from the waterside) and dinner on board

Saturday, 15 September 2012: Final meeting in the ‘Hörsaalruine’

9.00 - 11.00 Session 6: Presenting

• Hsiang Ching Chuang, Eindhoven (Netherlands) Contextualizing Museum Experiences Through Metaphors
• Mienekete Hennepe, Leiden (Netherlands) Scary Things: Horrifying objects between disgust and desire
• Bart Grob, Leiden (Netherlands) Medicine at the Movies
• Tim Huisman, Leiden (Netherlands) Anatomical Illustration and Beyond: Looking at Bidloo and De Lairesse’s Anatomia humani corporis

11.00 - 11.30 Coffee and Tea

11.30 - 12.30 Final session

You can find a registration form here; Image sourced here. Hope to see you there!

Cover Art for Agatha Christie's "The Body in the Library," Rein van Looy (1910-1994)

Cover art for The Body in the Library (Dutch edition) by Agatha Christie, by Rein van Looy, (1910-1994).

Found via the fantastic "The Macabre and the Beautifully Grotesque" Facebook group; this particular scan of the cover found here. Click on image to see much larger, more detailed version.

2012 Congress of Curious Peoples This Week at Coney Island!!!

Hi All! Just a reminder that the 2012 Congress of Curious Peoples--a 10-day series of lectures and performances devoted to curiosity and curiosities broadly considered, and featuring sideshow acts, lectures, performances, and a 2-day scholarly-yet-popular symposium called The Congress for Curious Peoples--launches in earnest tomorrow night, with a lecture by the always amazing Amy Herzog.

This year's iteration of The Congress promises to be the best yet; it will include a 2-day symposium featuring panel discussions on topics such as pre-cinematic immersive amusements and religion as spectacle, with featured speakers that include Sara Velas of The Velaslavasay Panorama; Paul Koudounaris of Empire of Death; Colin Nightingale, Senior Producer of Punchdrunk, the company behind the mindbendingly amazing Sleep No More Sleep; and Colin Dickey, author of Cranioklepty. Also featured will be stand-alone lectures on the 17th century artist of fetal skeleton tableaux Frederik Ruysch and the phenomenon of ethnographic displays called "human zoos," a screening of an over-the-top early 1970s TV Evangelist Christmas spectacular, and introductory lectures by myself and Coney Island Museum director Aaron Beebe.

Full--and hopefully final!--lineup below; hope to see you at some--if not more--of the terrific events making up this year's Congress!

Monday April 16th
7:30 – (Lecture) Amy Herzog: Architectural Fictions: Economic Development, Immersive Renderings, and the Virtualization of Brooklyn (more here)
9:00 – (Performance) Shea Love and the Circus Emporium

Tuesday April 17th
7:30 – (Lecture) Philip Kadish: “Pinhead Races and the White Man’s Burden” (more here)
9:00 – (Performance) The Squidling Bros Sideshow

Wednesday April 18th
7:30 -(Lecture/Performance) ‘An Evening of Fate, Chance and Mystery’ with Lord Whimsy and Les the Mentalist (more here)
9:00 – (Performance) Jo Boobs

Thursday April 19th
7:30 – (Lecture/Demonstration) The Museum of Interesting Things, WHAT THE SAM HILL IS THAT! (more here)
9:00 – (Performance) The Curious Couple from Coney Island

Friday April 20th
7:30 – (Performance/Reading) A reading of VENUS by Suzan-Lori Parks. Directed by Donya K. Washington (more here)
9:00 – (Performance/Lecture) Sideshow Legend Jim Rose

Saturday April 21st
Super Freak Weekend at Sideshows by the Seashore (Continuous Admission, Tickets at the door); Colonnade of Curiosities in the Freak Bar
Congress For Curious People (Day 1 of a 2-day Symposium)

Sunday April 22nd
Super Freak Weekend at Sideshows by the Seashore (Continuous Admission, Tickets at the door); Colonnade of Curiosities in the Freak Bar
Congress For Curious People (Day 2 of a 2-day Symposium)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

FULL SYMPOSIUM DETAILS:
THE 2012 CONGRESS FOR CURIOUS PEOPLE
Saturday and Sunday, April 21st and 22nd

SATURDAY APRIL 21st

11:00 – 12:00: Keynote Addresses

• Joanna Ebenstein, Morbid Anatomy Library
• Aaron Beebe, Coney Island Museum

12:00 – 1:00: Lunch

1:00 – 3:30: Immersive Amusements: Cosmoramas, Cycloramas and Panoramic Illusions: Panel discussion moderated and introduced by Aaron Beebe, The Coney Island Museum

• Suzanne Wray
• Sara Velas, The Velaslavasay Panorama
• Jessica Routhier, The Saco Museum
• Russell Potter, Rhode Island College
• Denise Blake Oleksijczuk, Simon Fraser University

4:00 – 5:00: The Business of the Dead: Frederik Ruysch as an Entrepreneurial Anatomist, Lecture by Daniel Margocsy, Hunter College

5:00: Christmas in America: Miss Velma and the Evangelist Spectacle: Screening of “Christmas in America,” an early 1970s television special by Miss Velma, early TV evangelist, introduced by Daniel Paul

SUNDAY APRIL 22

11:00 – 1:00: Religion and Spectacle: A panel with discussion moderated and introduced by Joanna Ebenstein, Morbid Anatomy Library

• Paul Koudounaris, author of Empire of Death
• Shannon Taggart, Photographer
  
• The Venerable Tsering Phunstok
• Colin Dickey, author of Cranioklepty and Afterlives of the Saints
• Salvador Olguin, Borderline Projects

1:00 – 2:30: Lunch and Sideshow Visit

2:30 – 3:30: Traveling Ethnographic Shows and Human Zoos, a lecture by Elizabeth Bradley

3:30 – 5:30: Theater Rethunk: An Alternative History of the Theatrical: A panel with discussion moderated and introduced by Chris Muller

• Amy Herzog, Queens College
• Colin Nightingale, Senior Producer of Punchdrunk, Sleep No More
• Alex Harvey, Freelance Director/Adapter
  
• Chris Muller, New York University
• Dick Zigun, Founder of Coney Island USA

Tickets for the symposium are available here; for tickets to individual events and lectures, click here; 10-day Congressional Passes--which provide access to all events!--are available here. All events take place at 1208 Surf Avenue in Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York; you can map it here. See you there!!!

The Great Morbid Anatomy Library Flood of 2012: List of Destroyed Books Now Posted

Thanks so very much to all of you for your outpouring of support, donations, and offers to help in the aftermath of The Great Morbid Anatomy Flood of 2012 (more details on that here). Many of you have asked to see a list of those books lost, in the interest of ordering or sending particular books for the library; I have created a special Amazon wish list that contains all books lost, and will ship directly to the library; you can check it out by clicking here.

For those of you who would like to mail books directly, our mailing list is:

Joanna Ebenstein
c/o The Morbid Anatomy Library
543 Union Street #1E
Brooklyn, NY 11215

Thanks so much, again, for all your support, and please save the date for an upcoming benefit party to take place Saturday May 12. Please contact me if you'd like to donate objects or artworks for a silent auction, or talent for performances, or labor!

Disaster Has Hit The Morbid Anatomy Library!

Tis' a sad day indeed.

Some of you might already have already heard, but last Friday night, the building in which The Morbid Anatomy Library is located suffered a small artwork-related fire. The fire was quickly extinguished, but not before The Library and its collection of books, artworks, and artifacts suffered severe water damage from the building's fire sprinklers. Stay tuned for news about a benefit party to raise money for rebuilding the library, but, in the meantime, here are some photos of the water-logged chaos we are digging ourselves out of. I should mention, the damage could have been much, much worse, and I am very grateful we got off as easy as we did. Still, if any of you are interested in making a monetary donation to help the collection, simply click on the "donate here" button on the right side of this blog. If you are interested in donating books or artifacts--or time and/or talent for the benefit!--please email me at morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com.

I would also like to send out a very special heartfelt thank you to G. F. Newland, Wythe Marschall, Ethan Gould, Grace Baxter, Emi Brady, Sasha Chavchavadze, PK Ramani, Tammy Pittman, Benjamin Warnke, Aaron Beebe, Lado Pochkhua, Ted Enik, the fellows from Curious Matter, and everyone else who for pitched in to make this disaster so much less of a one than it could have been, while I was far from home and unable to help at all.

Ok, off to assess the damage in greater detail. Thanks to everyone, and more to come!

Activating Stilled Lives: The Aesthetics and Politics of Specimens on Display; International Conference at the Department of History of Art, UCL

This exciting conference--free and open to all!--just announced! Looks like a good one; so wish I could go!

Cultures of Preservation
Prepared specimens appear in many guises: as monstrous or typical organs preserved in formaldehyde and kept in glass jars not unlike pickled food, as stained and fixed tissue slices, or as skilfully arranged mounted animals. They may be found in cabinets of curiosities, in the laboratories of histologists, in anatomy theatres or in natural history collections, but nowadays equally in art galleries, the shop windows of fashionable boutiques, or horror films. This research network is concerned with such kinds of preserved natural objects, in particular with anatomical wet or dry preparations and taxidermy. It explorses the hybrid status of these objects between nature and representation, art and science and studies their fabrication, history and display.

The network is a collaboration between the UCL Department of History of Art, UCL collections, in particular the Grant Museum of Zoology, the Hunterian Museum, London and the Natural History Museum, London.

Activating Stilled Lives: The Aesthetics and Politics of Specimens on Display
International conference at the Department of History of Art, UCL
Thursday 17 May - Friday 18 May 2012

The past twenty years saw an explosion of exhibitions fathoming the relations between art and science as well as numerous refurbishments of natural history or former colonial museums. Many of these displays and gallery transformations mobilised specimens, be it taxidermied animals or preserved human body parts. Objects were put into new contexts opening up their meanings, others disappeared in storage or travelled back to the countries where they were once collected. The conference will address the challenges institutions face when dealing with formerly living entities and consider the aesthetics and politics of their display. The idea is to discuss the use of specimens in temporary exhibitions, museums or university collections and the role curators, art and artists have been playing in the transformation of these spaces. We also would like to consider how preserved specimens have changed through the altering contexts in which they have been displayed. One could name the initial transformation of organisms into objects, the more recent re-definition of pathological specimens as human remains, or the dramatic rearrangements that took place when natural history, anthropology or anatomy collections (many dating from the nineteenth century) were updated – coinciding with a shift in audiences, from specialists to a broader public. Often the historical displays were significantly altered, or even destroyed and replaced by „techy“ but at times also sentimentalised, „post-modern“ installations that still await a critical assessment.

Beyond that, the question of preservation shall be considered in a more expanded sense, as this subject area offers a unique opportunity to reflect more broadly on issues of conservation and their ethics and to raise a variety of questions such as: How and why do various cultures preserve elements of what is considered as nature? How does this relate to environmental notions of conservation and extinction? Should flawed specimens be disposed of? Can museums as a whole be considered cultural preserves? Should we preserve the preserves? And last but not least: Do we really need to embalm everything?

Confirmed speakers: Claude d'Anthenaise (Director, Musée de la chasse et de la nature, Paris), Steve Baker (Artist and Art Historian, Norfolk), Christine Borland (Artist, Glasgow), Mark Carnall (Curator, Grant Museum of Zoology, London), Nélia Dias (Anthropologist, Lisbon), Anke te Heesen (Museology / European Ethnology, Berlin), Petra Lange-Berndt (Art Historian, London), John MacKenzie (Professor Emeritus of Imperial History, Lancaster), Robert Marbury (Artist / Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermy, Baltimore), Angela Matyssek (Art Historian, Marburg / Maastricht), Lisa O'Sullivan (Curator, Science Museum/art-history/events/culture_of_preservation London), Hans-Jörg Rheinberger (Historian of Science, Berlin), Rose Marie San Juan (Art Historian, London), Johannes Vogel (Director, Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin)

Detailed programme: For further information please contact
Mechthild Fend m.fend(@)ucl.ac.uk or Petra Lange-Berndt p.lange-berndt(@)ucl.ac.uk

More information available here.

"O Death Where Is Thy Sting?" or Happy Easter Everyone!

Easter week celebrates the moment when, in Christian metaphysics, mortality is overcome by everlasting life. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ redeems mankind from the sinful state into which mankind fell through Adam's disobedience to the will of God in the garden of Eden. His resurrection liberates us from eternal perdition: in Saint Paul's famous words (I Corinthians, XV.54-55) "So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, 'Death is swallowed up in victory'. O death where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory?".

These concepts were articulated with fresh force in the later sixteenth century through the Counter-Reformation, in media such as altarpieces, sermons, the educational work of the Jesuit Order, and through devotional prints which were widely disseminated. Here we present four such prints from the holdings of the Wellcome Library...

Read the entire article from which this excerpt is drawn--and see more images!--on the excellent Wellcome Library blog by clicking here; click on image to see a much larger, more detailed view.

Image: Engraving after Maerten de Vos, late 16th century. Wellcome Library no. 23283i.

As described on the blog:

Finally in this sequence, we have the powerful figure of Christ triumphing over death. The upper part combines two scenes: Christ is simultaneously resurrected from the tomb and ascends into heaven. In the lower left corner, Death itself is about to be swallowed up by a monster, while in the centre the snake that led Adam and Eve astray, and who is entwined around the secular world, is about to be trampled down by the wounded foot of Christ. On the right a tablet engraved with the Ten Commandments faces upwards, indicating that Christ is triumphing over righteousness of the law, replacing it with righteousness of faith...

"Ouija: The Talking Board" A New Episode of The Midnight Archive, Featuring Mitch Horowitz

A new episode of The Midnight Archive--the web-based documentary series centered around Observatory--has just been uploaded and can be viewed above. Here is what the series creator--film-maker and many-time Observatory lecturer Ronni Thomas--has to say about this episode:

Episode 11 : Ouija: The Talking Board -- And we’re back - with the fascinating Mitch Horowitz (see Occult NY parts 1 and 2) and the incredible history of the Ouija Board. Learn about its early roots as a sort of ‘telegraph’ to the other side - to its evolution into the board game to outsell Monopoly. Get a haunting glimpse into some of the celebrities who used the board and learn about its ominous warning to poet Sylvia Plath. Its more than just a toy and a Morrissey song. So enjoy this latest installment and make sure to ‘like’ us on Facebook. Also for a more detailed history make sure to check out Mitch’s book Occult America (which can and should be purchased here).

For more on the series, to see former episodes, or to sign up for the mailing list and thus be alerted to future uploads, visit The Midnight Archive website by clicking here. You can also "like" it on Facebook--and be alerted in this way--by clicking here. You can find out more about the amazing work of Sigrid Sarda by clicking here.

Damien Hirst, Hymn, On View Outside The Tate Modern

Thanks to Morbid Anatomy reader Greg Freeman for sending me this photo of Damien Hirst's controversial Hymn sculpture, which is on view outside the Tate Modern as part of a soon-to-open Hirst retrospective; more on that exhibition here.

The Hand of Glory, from Sir James George Frazer's "The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion," 1922

There is a fruitful branch of homoeopathic magic which works by means of the dead; for just as the dead can neither see nor hear nor speak, so you may on homoeopathic principles render people blind, deaf and dumb by the use of dead men’s bones or anything else that is tainted by the infection of death...

In Europe [such] properties were ascribed to the Hand of Glory, which was the dried and pickled hand of a man who had been hanged. If a candle made of the fat of a malefactor who had also died on the gallows was lighted and placed in the Hand of Glory as in a candlestick, it rendered motionless all persons to whom it was presented; they could not stir a finger any more than if they were dead. Sometimes the dead man’s hand is itself the candle, or rather bunch of candles, all its withered fingers being set on fire; but should any member of the household be awake, one of the fingers will not kindle. Such nefarious lights can only be extinguished with milk. Often it is prescribed that the thief’s candle should be made of the finger of a new-born or, still better, unborn child; sometimes it is thought needful that the thief should have one such candle for every person in the house, for if he has one candle too little somebody in the house will wake and catch him. Once these tapers begin to burn, there is nothing but milk that will put them out. In the seventeenth century robbers used to murder pregnant women in order thus to extract candles from their wombs...
--The Golden Bough, Sir James George Frazer, 1922

You can read many more such factoids in the fantastic The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion by Sir James George Frazer, published in 1922; you can read it online by clicking here, or purchase a hard copy (as I have done) by clicking here.

Image sourced here.