The Morbid Anatomy Anthology

The Morbid Anatomy Anthology
Editing (with Colin Dickey), art direction, design, production, photo research and published by Joanna Ebenstein
Morbid Anatomy Press. 491 pages, 2014. Order here.

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 (Director of Culture and Society at The Wellcome Trust) 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-siècle Paris, post-mortem photography, eroticized anatomical wax models, taxidermied humans and other animals, Santa Muerte, "artist of death" Frederik Ruysch, and much more.

Essays (In order of appearance):

• Foreword, Joanna Ebenstein, Founder of Morbid Anatomy

• Introduction, Joanna Ebenstein and Colin Dickey

• What a Wonderful World, David Pescovitz, Boing Boing

• Giuliu Camillo: Renaissance Scholar, Con Man, & Father of the Kabbalistic Theatre, Mel Gordon, author of The Grand Guingol

• Staging the Unconscious, Artist Zoe Bellof

• Memento Mori: Reflections on the Art of the Tableau, Amy Herzog, Professor of Media Studies at Queens College

• The Birth of Venus, Joanna Ebenstein, Founder of Morbid Anatomy

• 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 Cambridge University

• Naples: In The Court of Miracles, Chiara Ambrosio

• Ghost Images: The Curious Afterlife of Postmortem Photographs, Mark Dery, cultural critic and author of The 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 I. 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 & the Monstrous Imagination, Stephen Asma, author of Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads

• Demonic Children & Their Curious Absence in the European Witch Trials, Caitlin Doughty of Order of the Good Death

• Anatomy or an Ottamy? Bodies on Show in Georgian London, Simon Chaplin, Director of Culture and Society at The Wellcome Trust

• Staging Science at Wellcome Collection: Anatomical Models in Context, Kate Forde, Head of Exhibitions at The Wellcome Collection

• Soap Stories: The Mysterious Life & 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, Death in Mexico Scholar Salvador Olguín

• Morbid Curiosity Meets Morbid Anatomy, "collector of death" Richard Harris,

• Death and Doctor Buchan, Ross MacFarlane of The Wellcome Library

• Bound In Human Skin: A Survey of Examples of Anthropodermic Bibliopegy, Bookmaker Daniel Smith

• The Devil in Three Dimensions, Ronni Thomas, creator of The Midnight Archive

• Anthropomorphic Mouse Taxidermy Class, Amber Jolliffe on Anthropomorphic Mouse Taxidermy Class teacher Sue Jeiven

• The Spiritualists, Photographer Shannon Taggart

• 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 & Other Macabre Entertainments of Nineteenth Century Paris, Vadim Kosmos