RT Journal
A1 Miksanek T
T1 Bones books & bell jars: Photographs of the mütter museum collection
JF JAMA
JO JAMA
YR 2012
FD November 21
VO 308
IS 19
SP 2039
OP 2040
DO 10.1001/jama.308.19.2039
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.308.19.2039
AB 
Bones Books & Bell Jars is a gorgeous photographic tour of the Mütter Museum of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia as well as a creative tour de force. The flavor of the book is reverential, historical, and on occasion a tad spooky. Think Twilight Zone meets Antiques Roadshow. The photography is imaginative. The use of only black-and-white photographs imparts a stark, retro look to the book. Yet mysteriously the work comes alive, more akin to a living documentary than a static collection of still life photographs. Some of the pictures are haunting—a wax model (moulage) of a child's face studded with molluscum contagiosum, a disarticulated fetal skeleton, and an anencephalic fetus, for example.