CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 6/4/2016

Anatomical Venus Symposium & Book Party at Morbid Anatomy Museum

Saturday, June 4 from 11 AM - 7:15 PM, the Morbid Anatomy Museum presents a day-long symposium in celebration of Joanna Ebenstein's remarkable new study, The Anatomical Venus: Wax, God, Death & the Ecstatic. Topics include anatomized women, wax, the ecstatic, Catholicism and the cult of the saints, the uncanny, and more. A book signing will follow at Halyards, with DJ stylings by Friese Undine and films curated by David Cory.

Date: Saturday, June 4
Time: 11 AM - 7:15 PM
Admission:
$10 ( Morbid Anatomy Member Symposium Admission )
$15 ( Regular Symposium Admission )
$45 ( Admission + Book )
***Copies of The Anatomical Venus will be available for sale and signing.
*** Admission includes access to museum exhibits including House of Wax

The Anatomical Venus--by Morbid Anatomy Museum co-founder and creative director, Joanna Ebenstein--explores the curious history of seductive female anatomical wax models, created in the 18th century and peaking in fashion in the 19th. The book traces--in images and words--the evolution of these enigmatic sculptures from wax effigy to fetish figure and the embodiment of the uncanny.

11:00 AM
Introductory Remarks by Tracy Hurley Martin (Morbid Anatomy Museum Co-Founder and Board Chair)

11:10 AM
Joanna Ebenstein (Morbid Anatomy Founder, Morbid Anatomy Museum Co-Founder and Creative Director): An Enlightenment-era St Teresa Ravished by Communion with the Invisible Forces of Science: A Brief Introduction to The Anatomical Venus

11:30 AM
Introductory Talk: Evan Michelson (Scholar in Residence, TV's Oddities): An Anatomical Pilgrimage

12:00 - 1:45 PM
PANEL ONE: Agalmatophilia, or People who Fall in Love with Non-animate Humans (Moderated by Laetitia Barbier)
-- Margaret Schwartz (Fordham Univsersity): "I Buried Her Standing Because She Had Balls!" The Strange Afterlife of Eva Perón.
-- Lissa Rivera (Artist): The History of Sex Dolls
-- Ronni Thomas (Filmmaker in Residence): Mad Science, Mysticism, Romance and Necrophilia: The Strange Tale of Carl von Cosel and Elena Hoyos

1:45 - 2:45 PM: Lunch Break

2:45 - 4:00 PM
PANEL TWO: Corpo Sancto: Faith, Metaphysics & The Body (Moderated by Laetitia Barbier)
-- Stephen Asma (author of Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads): The Redemptive Body: a Theology of Anatomy (Moderated by Laetitia Barbier)
-- Colin Dickey (author of Cranioklepty and Afterlives of the Saints): Saint Teresa and the Erotics of Reading
-- Karen Bachman (Hair Artist in Residence): Holy Body Parts!: Speaking Reliquaries and Catholic Saints
-- Brian Cotnoir (Alchemist in Residence): How to Animate a Statue

4:00 - 5:00
PANEL THREE: Entranced Women on Display (Moderated by Joanna Ebenstein)
-- Shannon Taggart (Photographer, Programmer in Residence): Performing the Invisible: Magic, Meaning and the Medium's Cabinet
-- Asti Hustvedt (author of Medical Muses, editor of Zone's Decadent Reader): The Hysterical Venus

5:00-6:30 PANEL FOUR: The Pleasures of Anatomy and the Anatomical Gaze (Moderated by Joanna Ebenstein)
-- Mark Dery (Cultural Critic, Author of I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts): On The Pathological Sublime: Dark Matter and Aesthetic Rapture
-- Marie Dauenheimer (Medical Illustrator): Albinus, Wanderlaar and the Creation of the Homo Perfectus
-- Mel Gordon (Author of Voluptuous Panic): Showcases of the Marvelous - The Rise and Fall of Berlins Panopticums (1888-1923)
-- Michael Sappol ( National Library of Medicine): Queer Anatomies: Perverse desire, medical illustration, and the epistemology of the anatomical closet

6:30- 7:15
Keynote Lecture: Amy Herzog (Queens College): Women in Boxes

7:15: Afterparty at Halyards with DJ stylings by Friese Undine and films curated by David Cory.

Buy tickets here!