"A Healthy Mania for the Macabre," Stephen T. Asma, The Chronicle for Higher Education

The new morbid curiosity... may be a pendulum swing back toward the sublime and the philosophical—a new secular foray into the morbid territory that religion previously charted. One way to avoid deeper engagement with death is to paint it entirely from the crude palette of emotions like disgust and fear. We've already got plenty of that kind of "morbid" in popular culture. But awe and wonder need to be restored to our experience of death, and we're not sure how to do it in a post-religious culture.

--"A Healthy Mania for the Macabre," Stephen T. Asma, The Chronicle for Higher Education

The above is excerpted from a characteristically thoughtful and erudite piece by Stephen Asma, one of my all-time favorite scholars and author of the fantastic Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads. The piece--entitled "A Healthy Mania for the Macabre"--explores the current uptick of interest in all things macabre, and situates it within the history ofspectacular morbid display from memento mori to Frederik Ruysch to Gunther von Hagens; It also features interesting quotations from interviews with morbid art collector Richard Harris, charnel house obsessive and Empire of Death author Paul Koudounaris, and yours truly.

You can read the entire article by clicking here. I very highly recommend it!

Image: Clemente Susini (probably): Slashed Beauty, wax, human hair, pearls, rosewood and Venetian glass case, ca 1790, La Specola, Museo di Storia Naturale, Florence, Italy; From the Anatomical Theatre exhibition

"Very Bad Things" and The Morbid Anatomy Library in Newsweek, Article and Video

The Morbid Anatomy Library has just been featured in a Newsweek Magazine article entitled "Very Bad Things," which is essentially a meditation on why people collect the unspeakable, from "hipbones to wallets made of human skin to babies in jars." The piece was inspired by Mark Jacobson's new and excellent book (about which he just spoke at Observatory) The Lampshade: A Holocaust Detective Story from Buchenwald to New Orleans. Good friend Evan Michelson of the incomparable Obscura Antiques and Oddities--who is also co-star of the new reality show "Oddities" (as mentioned in yesterday's post), and Morbid Anatomy Library Scholar in Residence--also makes a characteristically well-spoken and thoughtful appearance.

Accompanying the article is a video tour of The Morbid Anatomy Library which the magazine describes as "A Peek Inside a 'Morbid' Museum;" You can view the video above if you so choose.

You can read the article--and see the video in context!--by clicking here. For more about The Morbid Anatomy Library, click here. To find out more about Mark Jacobson's book The Lampshade--or purchase a copy!--click here. To find out about his recent Morbid Anatomy Presents lecture at Observatory, click here. To find out more about Obscura Antiques and Oddities and the new program "Oddities," click here and here, respectively.

"Confronting Mortality with Art And Science" Book Release Party and Film Screening, TONIGHT!

Snow or no, hope you can make it tonight! More details here.

Perhaps this is a good moment, also, to announce the launch of the new space in which tonight's event will take place. "Observatory" (as we are calling it) is a collaborative lecture/gallery/classroom/event space sandwiched between Proteus Gowanus Interdisciplinary Gallery and Reading Room, Cabinet Magazine, and the Morbid Anatomy library, all housed in a re-purposed turn-of-the-century box factory located at Union and Nevins in the Gowanus district of Brooklyn, New York. The collaborators include myself, animator/illustrator/musician G. F. Newland, Michelle Enemark and Dylan Thuras of the Curious Expeditions blog, Pam Grossman of Phantasmaphile, Herbert Pfostl of Blind Pony Books and Paper Graveyard, and video and book artist James Walsh. More on Observatory, and its many upcoming workshop, symposia, events and spectacles to come!

"Confronting Mortality with Art And Science" Book Release Party and Film Screening, March 2, 7:30 PM

Morbid Anatomy would like to invite all readers to a book release party for "Confronting Mortality with Art and Science: Scientific and Artistic Impressions on What the Certainty of Death Says About Life," the illustrated catalog for a conference of the same name that I partipated in back in 2007 in Antwerp (see image above).

The event, which is free and open to the public, will take place next Monday, March 2 at 7:30 PM in the as-of-yet un-named space (more on this soon! And more events in this space to come!) sandwiched between Proteus Gowanus, Cabinet Magazine, and the Morbid Anatomy Library; For full practical details, see the bottom of this post.

Also featured in the evening's festivities will be a screening of the book's companion film "Art : Science = Science x Art" (a 30 minute documentary on Medical Art), and the whole will be introduced by visiting editors fresh off the plane from Belgium, Ann Van de Velde and Pascale Pollier-Green. There will also be wine.

Here is some information about the book, care of the editors:

"Confronting Mortality with Art and Science: Scientific and Artistic Impressions on What the Certainty of Death Says About Life" is a rare entry into the nexus of science and art, this thought-provoking exploration introduces the ongoing research by scientists and artists into the fascinating subject of death and mortality. The unique practices of medical and scientific artists share a desire to piece the world together using the power of representational drawing. Their common belief that to draw is to see seeks to answer the riddles of mortality through the cultivation of their art, and what begins as an exploration of death ultimately becomes a celebration of life. This collection presents an introduction to the front lines of medical and scientific art, elaborating upon the ethos of their movement, and showcasing some of their greatest discoveries.

Artists, and more specifically medical artists, have always incorporated the various symbols of death, the cessation of biological functions, throughout their work. They believe it is important to identify with the concept that we are in fact mortal creatures. Nevertheless they consider their work to be a celebration of life and a preservation of something beautiful.

In "Confronting Mortality with Art and Science" it is not Art for the service for Science and vice versa, because there must always remain some degree of integrity of disciplines; a sort of demarcation of discourse, intentions, motivations and outcomes. This does not exclude very close ties and cross fertilisation/contamination between Art and Science. Only when the demarcation is there, however, will the results will be focused and enormously interesting.

Most of the presented work in this book is an ongoing visual investigation of mortality. Artists and scientists draw carefully observed representations of things that have wandered off this mortal coil - birds, plants, bugs and animals. Each is equal to the others in its mortality. Medical and scientific artists have a desire to pull the pieces of the world together, to make it whole and to make sense of our fractured reality. They believe in the power of representational drawing. To draw is to see. Sometimes the work is complete when the drawing is finished. At other times the drawing becomes a point of departure…"

Authors: Rudy Van Eysendeyk (B) Jacques M.C Spee (NL) Patrick McDonnell (CAN) Beverly Ress (USA) Emmanuel Gilissen (B) Frederic Daman (B) Francis Van Glabbeek (B) Robrecht Van Hee (B) Eleanor Crook (UK) Werner Jacobs (B) Richard Neave (UK) Wim Hüsken (B) Patrick Allegaert (B) Filip Geerardyn (B) Jeff Wyckoff (USA) Bart Koubaa (B) Laurie Hassold (USA) Jo Ann Kaplan (UK) J. Fabre (B) & EO Wilson (USA) Elisabetta Cunsolo (I) Erika Giuliani (I) Bernard Lernout (B) John McGhee (UK) Maartje Kunen (NL) Robert Zwijnenberg (NL) Sofie Hanegreefs (B)

Artists: Caitlin Berrigan (USA) Phil Bloom (NL) Eleanor Crook (UK) Joanna Ebenstein (USA) Bryan Green (UK) Laurie Hassold (USA) Jo Ann Kaplan (UK) Adrienne Klein (USA) Dries Magits (B) Joanneke Meester (NL) Museum Dr. Guislain (B) Caroline Needham (UK) Chantal Pollier (B) Pascale Pollier-Green (B) Robert Quint (F) Jody Rasch (USA) Beverly Ress (USA) Jess Rutten (B) Martin uit den Bogaard (NL) Ann Van de Velde (B) Donat Willenz (B) Jeff Wyckoff (USA)

With the kind support of the ‘Association Européenne des Illustrateurs Médicaux et Scientifiques’ (AEIMS) and the ‘MedicalArtists’Association of Great Britain’ (MAA), the ‘Association of Medical Illustrators’ (AMI), the ‘Vesalius Trust’ and ‘Art & Science Collaborations, Inc.’ (ASCI).

This should be a really good event! Hope to see you there!

Practical Details
"Confronting Mortality with Art And Science: Scientific and Artistic Impressions on What the Certainty of Death Says About Life" Book Release Party and "Art : Science = Science x Art" Film Screening
Monday, March 2, 2009
7:30 PM
Admission: Free
Address: 543 Union Street, Brooklyn, New York 11215
Entry via Proteus Gowanus Interdisciplinary Gallery and Reading Room; go through back door of gallery, then take a left to find event. Directions here or call 718.243.1572.

Feel free to email me at morbidanatomy@gmail.com with any questions.

ADDENDUM: Due to many queries I have received on this matter--if you would like to purchase the book but can not attend the event, you can do so by clicking here.

"Bill of Mortality" Front Cover, London, 1665

Image above is the Gorey-esque front cover of the 1665 edition of London's "Bill of Mortality."

About "Bills of Mortality," from "The Free Dictionary":

The London Bills of Mortality were the main source of mortality statistics, designed to monitor deaths from the plague from the 1600s-1830s. They were used mainly as a way of warning about plague epidemics.

They began to be made in London after an outbreak of plague in 1592 (although there are a few earlier instances). From 1603, after another outbreak, they were made regularly on a weekly basis, with the view to giving authorities and inhabitants full information as to the increases or decreases in the number of deaths. The information was collected by Parish Clerks and published every week.

Image source: From the online article "The Renaissance Obsession with Mutability and Mortality," by Herman Asarnow, Ph.D., Professor of English Chair Department of English at the University of Portland, Oregon.

Jodie Carey, 21st Century

Artworks made from icing, blood, and human hair and taking the form of bones, memorial wreaths, and chandeliers. Good stuff, found via Phantasmaphile.

P.S. Doesn't image 3 look just a little bit familiar?

Jodie Carey, 21st Century

Artworks made from icing, blood, and human hair and taking the form of bones, memorial wreaths, and chandeliers. Good stuff, found via Phantasmaphile.

P.S. Doesn't image 3 look just a little bid familiar?

To Die No More, Blind Pony Books, 2008

Another book to covet this holiday season, co-edited and illustrated by my friend Herbert Pfostl and published by Blind Pony Books. In Herbert's words:

Inspired by Guido Ceronetti's great but little known Silence of the Body, To Die No More is an artist's book about the marvelous embroideries of death taken from many sources both known and long forgotten. 170 fragments - from Aries to Wittgenstein - collected and edited by Herbert Pfostl and Kristofor Minta with splinters by Kristofor Minta, ruins, appropriated by James Walsh, and small paintings of shipwrecks, animals, robbers and ashes by Herbert Pfostl. Made with great care and sober like a good dream. Dedicated to the deeply dead and the truly living.

Note to reader: I have stood, aghast, before this man's library; if that is any hint as to what this book might contain, it is sure to be amazing.

Find out more about the book, distributed by D.A.P.,here.

Danza Macabre Website

Check out Danza Macabre, a lovingly compiled website showcasing a vast collection of historical art images dealing with death and mortality. Takes a few minutes to download, but well worth the wait; a veritable embarrasment of riches. A wide range of imagery, from medical Danse of Death woodcuts, to Durer, Goya, Bosch, Vesalius, Gautier, Robert Geisseler, and 19th century examples. Found via Wikipedia's entry for Danse Macabre.