Death

A Graveside Companion

Thames & Hudson 2017 Hb, 368pp, illus, ind, bib, illus, £210.36, ISBN 9780500519714

This hefty hardback is a journey through the history of humanity’s relationship with death. It covers everything from gravestones and memorial photographs to medical manuals, theatrical posters, mourning jewelry, religious relics, tourist displays of corpses, Hallowe’en costumes, skeletonthemed advertisements and more. In addition to its huge collection of morbid art, this volume also contains 19 short essays on different aspects of the role of death in subject.

Death’s seven sections each cover a different thematic area. Beginning with “the art of dying”, the book proceeds through scientific and medical examinations, memorials, the personified character of death, death as a symbol, death as entertainment, and perceptions of the afterlife. Each section begins with two to three essays, each two to five pages long. Topics covered are as diverse as the use of hair in mourning jewelry, the careers of particular spiritualists, death in Mexican art and the Nutshell

Studies of Unexplained Death. They are fascinating introductions, and the subjects so varied that there’s likely to be something in them for any reader.

These essays are one of the few areas where the book’s otherwise gorgeous design falls a little short. The text pages are printed in gold text on a brown background, which is easier to read than it sounds but not as easy to read as it might be.

The essays, together with Ebenstein’s introduction and the brief foreword by Will Self, make interesting reading, but the real strength of this book is the size and breadth of its image collection. Death casts its net wide, giving a compelling picture of the many ways in which human societies have engaged with death over the centuries. It’s not an in-depth study, but a lavishly illustrated guide, something like a museum exhibition in book form. It’s a fantastic visual resource and a lot of fun to dip into.