The Sick Rose

I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to own a copy, but I think the phrase 'morbid curiosity' is the premise for this book's existence.

The Sick Rose: Disease and
the Art of Medical Illustration
by Richard Barnett
(Image courtesy of Amazon UK)

In a time when it's hip to spend your weekends at taxidermy lessons and roadkill couture is a thing of macabre beauty on the high-fashion catwalks, the stalwart minded and cast-iron stomached amongst you can rejoice, for there is now a tome of bookish grim that will make a perfect accompaniment to your your crystal skull and bell-jar adorned coffee table.

The Sick Rose: Disease and the Art of Medical Illustration is a stunning 'visual tour through the golden age of medical illustration'. And it's not a shy offering, with pustules and skin complaints aplenty and diseases that could be attributed to the origin of the zombie.

The gorgeously disgusting but immensely skillful artwork teamed with evocative editorial gives an impressive snapshot into the human struggle against the unknown maladies of the 18th-20th centuries. A must read on an empty stomach, and an animated conversation starter in the office.

The name of the book is also aptly borrowed from William Blake's 18th century poem about ailing love.


PLAY DOCTOR

Plus, if you fancy yourself as skilled in the art of diagnoses, give this Vice quiz a go and see if you can match the illness to the the correct illustration. WARNING: Not for the faint-hearted, and there are mens bit's featured.

Images courtesy of Wellcome Library, London