The holidays are upon us (Krampusnacht is only a few days away!) and that means it’s decorating season. So what’s a darkly-inclined girl to do when her options seem only merry and bright?
That’s where this list of death books comes in. Their gorgeous covers and interiors serve as pieces of art in their own right, and they’re certain to fit in with your dark aesthetic–these are not the sorts of books you want to hide away on a dusty shelf. Even better, all of them tackle a different angle of death and death culture.
A good coffee table book is supposed to inspire conversation, and my hope is that when you and your friends gather round your hearth to sip on mulled wine and White Russians, while exchanging devilish Krampus cards, your conversation will aspire to the topic of death.
Beyond the Dark Veil: Post Mortem and Mourning Photography by Jack Mord
This is the bible of post mortem photography. Filled with, “120 extraordinary and haunting photographs and related ephemera documenting the practice of death and mourning photography in the Victorian Era and early twentieth century,” Beyond the Dark Veil is sure to wow even the most death-inclined of the death-inclined. It’s also the real deal -Jack Mord is the owner and operator of The Thantos Archive, based in Woodinville, Washington, an archive that boasts of an incredible collection of “early post-mortem, memorial, and mourning photographs dating as far back as the 1840s.”
Stiffs, Skulls & Skeletons: Medical Photography and Symbolism by Stanley B. Burns, MD, and Elizabeth A. Burns
For the more medically-inclined folk, Stiffs, Skulls & Skeletons is a book of death-y medical photography; it includes over 400 photographs of dead bodies, specializing in the “nineteenth-century fascination with the dead body and body parts.” If you have a thing for skeletons, this book needs to be on your coffee table.
Mutter Museum Historical Medical Photographs by The College of Physicians of Philadelphia; Edited by Laura Lindgren
In a similar vein to the previous book, Mütter Museum Historical Medical Photographs explores the (need I say it–dead) human body. However, in keeping with the theme of the Mütter Museum, this book diverts from pure medical photography, because it explores the odd–and often grotesque–conditions that have affected, deformed, and prematurely ended lives. In particular, this books culls photographs from the period between the 1860s and the 1940s, all contained in the museum’s archives.
Anatomy in Black by Emily Evans
With its silky raven pages and 250+ gold illustrations, this brand new book is a masterful contemplation on human anatomy from a morbid, yet rather elegant, perspective. Its author, Emily Evans, is the anatomist in residence at the Morbid Anatomy Museum in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Memento Mori: The Dead Among Us by Paul Koudounaris
Western culture has been notorious for not being able to talk about death, but other parts of the world do a much better job at embracing–even celebrating–the things of which we seem so afraid. Through its hundreds of beautifully vibrant photographs captured by the author, Memento Mori showcases death rituals and customs from countries all over the world, including Ethiopia, Nepal, Cambodia, and Rwanda, to name a few.
Cabinet of Curiosities: Collecting and Understanding the Wonders of the Natural World by Gordon Grice
If you’re a naturalist, this book might strike your fancy.
Before modern museums, wunderkammers, otherwise known as curiosity cabinets, were a popular way of displaying weird, cool, or morbid relics and other odd ephemera. Cabinet of Curiosities follows that tradition by showing you how to fill your own curiosity cabinet–and the more skulls, the better.
Death and the Afterlife: A Chronological Journey, from Cremation to Quantum Resurrection by Clifford A. Pickover
Death and the Afterlife is as close to an all-encompassing reference book on death that you can hope to find. Like its title promises, it covers everything from the more traditional death rituals to the downright reeking-of-science-fiction, modern forays into the afterlife. The cover is a vision of decadent, macabre wonder, and the visuals inside echo that same sentiment.
