State of decay

May 28, 2008 10:36 PM

State of decay:"Over the years, Boston artist Rosamond Purcell has photographed goliath beetles and translucent bats culled from the backrooms of natural history museums; a collection of teeth pulled by Peter the Great; moles flayed by naturalist Willem Cornelis van Heurn; and scores of worn and weathered objects, like termite-eaten books and fish skeletons."
posted by dhruva (6 comments total)

This one is beautiful.

Also, "Jazz Hands!"

Also, this want makes me want to buy an elegant little pocket notebook.

That's about all I've got.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 1:21 AM on May 29, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

And the essay on Purcell (second link) is by this John Crowley.
posted by dhruva at 1:23 AM on May 29, 2008

Yay! Photographs without a flash interface.
posted by srboisvert at 2:33 AM on May 29, 2008

That was actually pretty neat.
posted by Vindaloo at 7:45 AM on May 29, 2008

Rosamond used to illustrate Stephen Jay Gould's columns in The Sciences, the publication of the New York Academy of Sciences. Theirs was a truly inspired collaboration. The Sciences was one of the best science publications I've ever read. They used fine art to illustrate almost all of their articles, and usually closed each issue with a Roz Chast cartoon. They can be found here, and do yourself the favor of downloading the PDFs. The art is only available in the PDF versions of the publications.
posted by Toekneesan at 11:23 AM on May 29, 2008

In New Harmony, Indiana, there is an awesome museum that dates back to the mid 1800's and is very much like the collections displayed here.
posted by Pollomacho at 11:33 AM on May 29, 2008