Art of the dead, art with the dead

"Dissection portraiture": a Gothic photographic art form, wherein medical students posed with dead bodies.

Warner described most of the photos as almost "reverential" in the treatment of the subject, some bearing such phrases written on the dissection tables as "Know Thyself," "Man's usefulness endeth not with death" and "Her loss is our gain."

But he noted that others, the gag photos and macabre images, almost seem to revel in the transgression -- posing human remains in outlandish poses or providing such accompanying table-epigraphs as "Such the vultures love," "Rest in pieces" and "The Lord giveth/We taketh away."

There is a book, Dissection, from from which this post's first image has been taken.  Here is a slideshow, from which the next picture comes:

(thanks to Barbara Sawhill!)

Comments

[Mark]

Reminds me of section 1 of Bierce's "The Damned Thing": "One Does Not Always Eat What Is on the Table".