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The Morbid Anatomy Anthology

Joanna Ebenstein (Editor),

Colin Dickey (Editor)

4.41 · Rating details · 126 ratings · 7 reviews

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 Mic ...more

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Hardcover, 491 pages

Published April 28th 2014 by Morbid Anatomy Press

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· 126 ratings · 7 reviews

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Aug 24, 2018 Lauren rated it really liked it

Shelves: recent

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 techni 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. ...more

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May 22, 2017 cee rated it it was amazing

Shelves: own, keep

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 ...more

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Sep 02, 2019 Claudia Loureiro rated it it was amazing

Shelves: dead-and-dying

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. ...more

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Apr 28, 2014 Vivienne rated it really liked it

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. Mo ...more

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May 06, 2014 Jared rated it it was amazing

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. ...more

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Jul 16, 2014 Jac rated it really liked it

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!

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Sep 12, 2014 Brett rated it it was amazing

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

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