Morbid anatomy
The space where medicine and art intersects is often ... well, weird. And fascinating. That realization is explored in the Morbid Anatomy Blog, written by Joanna Ebenstein, a graphic designer and photographer in Brooklyn, N.Y. One goal, Ebenstein says, is "to bring the art and history of medical museums to the awareness of a wider audience and to frame their artifacts as artistic and cultural objects with as much to say about their makers and the culture their makers inhabited as about medical knowledge." Ebenstein, who has traveled the world capturing images from museum exhibits, also runs the Morbid Anatomy Library, a research library and private collection of photographs, books and artifacts relating to medical museums, anatomical art and the history of medicine. "Medical museum artifacts can be diff icult for some contemporary viewers to understand; in fact, many people find these images morbid or grotesque," Ebenstein says.
Portrait of Ebenstein by Eric Harvey Brown