CABINET of CURIOSITIES
INTRODUCTION
The images in this series are not for the faint of heart or the squeamish. They portray human remains and severe medical conditions, many of which were fatal. This collection of my photographs, drawings, and prints represents my aesthetic responses to these fascinating yet unsettling subjects.
This is not a random collection of bones and things in jars, but a record of our shared medical heritage. These anatomical preparations represent the intersection of science, culture, emotion and myth. Through these artifacts, one can glimpse the evolution of modern medicine as it transitioned from superstition to science.
These images also reveal the bodily remains of those who suffered in life, but in death contributed to unraveling the mysteries of their diseases and injuries. As Gretchen Worden (1947-2004) remarked about the objects displayed in her own Mütter Museum, “While these bodies may be ugly, there is a terrifying beauty in the spirits of those forced to endure these afflictions, especially in the past when so many were doomed to horrible and prolonged suffering before their death for lack of effective treatment and cure.”*
Although each specimen tells a story of personal tragedy, I invite you to look beyond a misshapen limb or a preserved infant and consider the profound medical progress these specimens represent. It is through the study of what goes wrong that we have learned not only the mechanisms of disease but how healthy bodies function. Most recently, congenital deformities have helped decipher the human genome, ensuring these specimens remain invaluable teachers.
ORIGINS OF THE SERIES
In 1998, I began exploring my long-held fascination with human oddities—individuals with unique anatomies who once performed in carnival and circus sideshows. Initially captivated by the strangeness of their physical forms, I grew to appreciate their biographies, the theatrical exaggerations of their public personas, and the close-knit societies in which they often thrived.
This interest led to my series Congress of Oddities: Prodigies, a collection of portraits of genuine sideshow performers reimagined within contexts inspired by art history. Each portrait begins with thorough research into the performer's history and then pairing that person with an artwork that reminds me of something from their act, biography, or the gestures seen in the souvenir photographs they sold during their shows.
Given their unusual anatomies, many of these individuals also appear in medical literature. Showmen often sought the expertise of doctors to enhance public interest. Consequently, my research on sideshow often brings me into contact with medical museums. These institutions trace their origins to the tradition of wunderkammern (“cabinets of wonder”), in which educated men of means from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment gathered and displayed rare objects in an attempt to understand and organize the natural world. In time, these collections would be acquired by universities, or evolve into dime museums where figures like P.T. Barnum showcased human oddities alongside curious artifacts.
This intersection of traditions inspired Cabinet of Curiosities, my collection of my drawings, photographs, woodcuts, and etchings documents these objects and captures the beauty within the grotesque. Working with museum curators, I have documented these objects in situ, creating a portraits of the collections themselves. The style of depiction varies according to the context of its museum presentation, reflecting either clinical precision or the shadowy mystique of outdated knowledge and dusty shelves.
Taken as a whole, this body of work is a tribute to those who endured unfortunate medical conditions but allowed their experience to serve as means to understand the causes of their afflictions and discover the means by which future generations might be delivered from that misery.
James Mundie
* Worden, Gretchen. “Preface”, Mütter Museum of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. New York: Blast Books, 2002.
