You’re guaranteed to cringe when you enter the Morbid Anatomy Museum (morbidanatomymuseum.org).
The 4,200-square-foot building and nonprofit institution is hard to ignore; it's painted entirely in black and sits on the corner of 7th Street in Gowanus, Brooklyn.
On the ground floor of the museum, you can find a coffee gift shop filled with some of the most unusual items you’ll ever come across — from an entire elephant’s skull to jewelry made out of hair. Jars containing animal remains are also presented on the bookshelves, which decorate the inside of the building.
The real treasure trove, however, is displayed upstairs in the exhibition room of the museum. It holds a permanent collection of over 1,000 books and odd artifacts from all around the world. Throughout the year, the museum also hosts temporary shows that often highlight the “cracks of high and low culture,” as well as topics on death and beauty.
Its workshops and lecture series, for example, dabble in topics such as taxidermy, insect shadowboxes and books bound in human skin.
On view until Aug. 5 is its latest show, "House of Wax: Anatomical, Pathological, and Ethnographical Waxworks from Castan’s Panopticum (Berlin, 1869-1922)," which features a collection of waxworks depicting pathological and anatomical body parts.
Viewer discretion is very much advised.
For a full schedule of events, click here (morbidanatomymuseum.org/events).
