The Art of Bleeding

From a WWII health pamphlet designed by Theodore Geisel (AKA “Dr. Seuss”).

London’s Science Museum hosts a lovely virtual collection of objects related to medical history.  The object above is described as a “pair of artificial arms for a child, Roehampton, England, 1964, noting that the arts were somehow “gas powered” (?).  The chid for whom these arms were designed is understood to be a victim of [...]

I shot these a while back while visiting the Musée Dupuytren at the University of Paris medical school and thought I’d share them here. The museum itself is somewhat hard to find (some medical students queried nearby had no idea it existed) and is entered through a series of cluttered academic offices.  I was happy [...]

(photos from Empire de la Mort.) Usually we try to reign in our morbid interests right at the point where life ends and death begins, but in this case, we make an exception for  our friend artist, photographer, writer Paul Koudounaris. After years of travel and photography, Koudounaris has produced the exquisitely illustrated and painstakingly researched The Empire of Death: [...]

While poking around Sutured Infection’s Tumblr, we found these lovely medical themed paintings by Richard Tennant Cooper commissioned in 1912 by the Henry Wellcome for his museum of medical history. Richard Tennant Cooper - “A giant claw pierces the breast of a sleeping naked woman, another naked woman swoops down and stabs the claw with a knife ; [...]

And speaking of von Hagens yesterday, we came upon this….. “Why, yes, that is a plastinated bull testicle hanging from my neck!” It’s not often enough you are able to utter that sentence, is it? But if you and your credit card can take a moment to swing by world-famous Gunther von “The Plastinator” Hagens’ [...]

Our last entry on book surgeries got us thinking about a more grisly nexus of books and anatomy, in particular: anthropodermic bibliopegy, or the use of human skin in bookbinding. If you thought such things only existed in concentration camp mythology and The Evil Dead movies, think again. Genuine examples can be found in museums the [...]

The chance to enjoy an ice cream soda with a partner attractively outfitted in an orthopedic garment is one of life’s rare pleasures. Rarer still is such a handsome depiction of said moment.  But here we have it all —  the awkwardly placed candelabra, the oversized tablecloth, and the strange suggestion of cross-dressing presented by [...]

A while ago I blogged this for Laughing Squid, and am reposting it here as it clearly reflects The Art of Bleeding’s own icky medical obsessions. Does the name Chevalier Jackson ring a bell? No? Then you’re probably not a laryngologist or obsessive fan of Philadelphia’s Mütter Museum and its collection of medical oddities —  in [...]