ephemera
bioephemera | November 5, 2008
I expected that by now, last night's events would have sunk in. They haven't. So I've spent the morning cruising the intertubes.
DC's Newseum archives the front pages of major newspapers across the country - you can see their gallery of front pages here today, and can search for Nov. 5 at later dates. However, the intertubes seem clogged this morning, so you may have better luck loading the gallery slideshow of the best-designed front pages, put together by Robb Montgomery. He also includes international papers.
The full text of Barack Obama's victory speech in Chicago is here.
The full…
bioephemera | November 2, 2008
This is for all those people who wonder why I rave endlessly about Portland, Oregon.
From ahp_ibanez' flickr stream via signal vs. noise (they have some good stuff over there!).
Note: Yes, you purists, I am aware the Pound reference is Chinese. ;)
bioephemera | November 2, 2008Very cool:
These rock sculptures are pure ephemera, lasting only hours or days before the surf knocks them down. But sculptor Kent Avery doesn't see it as futile - even when the nascent sculptures fall on him, or onlookers object to their "unnatural" state.
Via signal vs. noise.
bioephemera | September 18, 2008
Vernon Grant, 1944
If you enjoyed the vintage public health posters I wrote about a while ago, you might want to stop in and see the National Academies' new exhibition, "An Iconography of Contagion." (Such a great title!)
Over twenty public health posters from 1920-1990 will be on display until December 19. Michael Sappol of the National Library of Medicine (and curator of Dream Anatomy) will give a free gallery talk tonight at 6pm.
bioephemera | September 11, 200819th century anatomical study cabinet #1Alex cf, 2008
The undisputed modern master of the horrifying cryptozoological specimen is Alex cf, bane of vampires and cthulhu spawn. Unfortunately, there's an immense demand for his work, and he isn't very prolific. So how's a girl to fill her curiosity cabinet - especially with Halloween right around the corner?
Luckily, Repository For Bottled Monsters turned up a great DIY project: how to bottle your own mad-scientist monstrosities. Check out these jars, created using inexpensive plastic toys from the dollar store:
from imakeprojects.com
These aren…
bioephemera | August 27, 2008
Surgical suture sampler, circa 18th cen.
Zurich Medical History Museum
Photo from Ickybitty's photostream
. . . unless your grandma was a trauma surgeon. This antique sampler from the Medical History Museum in Zurich represents a variety of stitch techniques appropriate for different anatomical regions and types of injury. Both the embroidery and the illustrated backing are rendered in remarkable detail:
bioephemera | August 24, 2008
A great gift for the medical history junkie, from Manifesto Letterpress: twelve "Dreade of Death" letterpress bookplates ($9.95 on sale). The designs are also available as coasters.
Manifesto also has skeleton and microscope letterpress postcards for the scientist in your life.
bioephemera | July 21, 2008
Vintage public health posters like this one are remarkable not only for their skilled design, but also for the varied ways they remain remarkably timely or seem bizarrely dated.
For example, compare the playful-yet-kinda-creepy "keep your teeth clean" poster above, as opposed to the very different meaning of "clean" in the anti-VD poster below. I think alarmist STD posters like this one and its contemporaries would have some difficulty getting approved today.
The National Library of Medicine has many more vintage posters here - or visit this Newsweek gallery for a quick tour.
bioephemera | April 27, 2008
. . . wherein whatsoever the hand of man by exquisite art or engine has made rare in stuff, form or motion; whatsoever singularity, chance, and the shuffle of things hath produced; whatsoever Nature has wrought in things that want life and may be kept; shall be sorted and included. . . [Bacon]
Welcome to the sixth edition of the Cabinet of Curiosities carnival. Whether your taste runs to Wunderkammern or Curiosities, blogs are treasure rooms for modern collectors of the strange and marvelous. Let's start with this perfect miniature cabinet of crochet motifs by JPolka at the oh-so-aptly named…
bioephemera | April 13, 2008Madame Ovary , 2008
Collage, 3.5 x 5.5"Richard Russell
Following up neatly on my post about Nicole Natri's anatomical collage, artist Richard Russell mixes beeswax and book art to create provocative, creepily symbolic images like Madame Ovary (above). Russell describes himself as a serious ephemeraholic:
I can become teary-eyed over certain botanical illustrations, wallpaper designs, bird prints, astronomy maps, travel documents, the pattern of handwriting in a letter. I prefer the patina of use and age--smudges, the stain of cellophane tape, a child's doodles in a book, margin notes, mold.…
bioephemera | April 10, 2008Vanitas, 2008
Nicole Natri
My friend Nicole Natri has finished her new website, updating her blog and portfolio of collage art. Nicole has a somewhat dark artistic vision involving sinister medical implements and bizarre anatomical diagrams - which she seems to have no trouble finding in vintage books. I wonder what bookshops she frequents??
Halloweenhead, 2007
Nicole Natri
Anguish, 2007
Nicole Natri
bioephemera | March 11, 2008World Map (detail)
Martin Waldseemuller, 1507
Last week I had to visit the Library of Congress, so I dropped in on the 1507 map by Martin Waldseemuller. The map, which was acquired by the Library in 2003, is tucked in behind an exhibit of mesoamerican artifacts, which seemed arranged specifically to baffle visitors. Both 1507 and 1516 maps by Waldseemuller are kept in large vertical cases at the back of the exhibit hall, invisible from the entrance; during my visit, only tourists shepherded by docents found their way around the other exhibit's margins and into the quiet, dim map room. This…
bioephemera | March 3, 2008
St Elizabeth's Hospital, Washington, DC; wall of Room in Ward Retreat 1
Reproductions made by a patient, a disturbed case of dementia precox [praecox?]; pin or fingernail used to scratch paint from wall, top coat of paint buff color, superimposed upon a brick red coat of paint. Pictures symbolize events in patient's past life and represent a mild state of mental regression. Undated, but likely early 20th century.
I saw recently that the National Museum of Health and Medicine has released a flickr stream of images from its archives, but I hadn't had time to really delve into them. I finally…
bioephemera | February 27, 2008Klingle Ford Bridge Wreck, 1925
National Photo Company Collection
Courtesy of Shorpy: proof that even in 1925, traffic on Connecticut Avenue was hell.
This wreck occurred about a mile or so from my apartment, near the National Zoo. As a work of art, it's uninspiring. But somehow its placement within my personal territory gives it a certain poignant fascination, a sort of urban archaeological authority.
John Updike recently wrote a book review for the New Yorker on "the art of snapshots," in which he said,
My own shoeboxes of curling, yellowing snapshots derive their fascination almost…
bioephemera | February 23, 2008I first saw these anatomical letters at Street Anatomy:
Typeface AnatomyBjorn Johansson
Unfortunately artist Bjorn Johansson doesn't seem to have completed the alphabet; these three specimens are all we find in the fossil record. But you can view another typeface, Handwritten, based on photos of hands, in his portfolio.
bioephemera | February 13, 2008One of the questions an artist hates most is what is your artwork worth? Price is a subjective, unsatisfactory proxy for emotional angst, frustration, eyestrain, and time. Sometimes I find that NO (reasonable) value can compensate for the emotional investment I've made - in which case I either keep the thing myself, give it away, or throw a tantrum and rip it up. Other variables also influence price - the artist's fame and skill, obviously, but also whether the work has been copied. People are willing to pay a premium to own original art, even if a reproduction is virtually identical in…