Epidermaography

on Jan 12 in Books, Favorite Posts, Film, Librarianship, Links by

Image from the Pillow Book showing a man's torso with Japanese calligraphyIt’s sweeps week here at librarian enterprises, so here’s some links about anthropodermic bindings.

For those of you who were asleep during The History of Books and Printing, that’s books bound in human skin. Because if you intellectualize it, it’s not icky. (from boing boing)

Speaking of books bound in human skin, have you seen Peter Greenway’s film The Pillow Book? It’s one of my favorites. It’s about a woman’s obsession with writing on the human body, and understandably also, her obsession with Ewan McGregor’s schlong. Don’t watch during dinner, in spite of or perhaps because of Ewan McGregor’s schlong. Special collections librarians: Play this movie at your next SLA meeting!

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Author: Erica Firment

Erica Olsen Firment is an omnivorous mammal of the genus Ailurus, having an endothermic physiology and a long, furry tail. Erica's range extends to both deciduous and coniferous forests, and can often be found at Linden Lab, working on the user interface for Second Life.

This author's website address is http://librarianavengers.org

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6 Comments

  • Kara says:
    January 13, 2006 at 4:25 pm

    Neat topic!

    Kind of makes you wonder how many of the old leather-bound books hidden deep in the stacks of the Olin and Koch Libraries are actually bound in human skin, huh? :)

    Next time I visit we ought to rent the Pillow Book… I haven’t seen it in ages.

    Also, if you have not read “Stiff” by Mary Roach yet, then you ought to do so at once. I don’t think it mentions using human skin to bind books, but it covers pretty much everything else that you can do with a corpse.

  • Kara says:
    January 13, 2006 at 4:29 pm

    Oh yeah… and I don’t think that books bound in human skin is icky at all.

  • Kristel says:
    January 16, 2006 at 4:37 pm

    I read the article too last week. I work in a medical library and we do have these old books, so I was wondering if we have any … apparently not. Still an interesting topic though.

    greetz,
    Kristel.

  • Moike says:
    January 23, 2006 at 3:49 pm

    $21 for a dvd????? That’s an outrage! No wonder the country’s going to hell in a handkerchief!

  • Lola says:
    February 9, 2006 at 1:06 am

    any it even comes with a spine!…har…har
    *hangs head in shame*

  • Sonia says:
    October 25, 2006 at 11:09 pm

    Have you heard of the anime R.O.D. The TV? http://www.amazon.com/R-O-D-TV-Complete-Vols/dp/B0009RQSAU/sr=8-2/qid=1161832020/ref=pd_bbs_2/104-0954395-7663958?ie=UTF8&s=dvd

    As a subplot (or thread of the main plot?) There are books there that are bound in human skin. Fascinating.

    I highly recommend R.O.D. the T.V. series and the miniseries Read or Die to any book lover.