In Dark & Dystopian Post-Mortem Fairy Tales, Mothmeister pays homage to the muses who have sparked their alienating dream world. From artists worldwide, legendary figures, their collection of taxidermy to lurid places where their figures were born, such as the catacombs of Palermo, Pyramiden or the disaster area around Chernobyl. A special fairy tale world that flirts with the morbid, religious and grotesque and in which stuffed animals are brought back to life in an extraordinary way.

You won't know whether to laugh or cry at these spectacularly bad attempts at taxidermy, brought to you courtesy of the hit website crappytaxidermy.com. The site's plethora of bad taxidermy examples - including a squirrel riding a rattlesnake like a cowboy, and various anatomically imaginative renderings of all creatures great and small - have proved hugely popular. Here the very best of the worst stuffed animals are brought together in one full-colour volume; with additional features including a DIY 'Stuff Your Own Mouse' lesson, and an author's introduction to the craze for getting stuffed.

A mix of art, science and a touch of alchemy, taxidermy lets you engage with the natural world in ways most other people don't. In Stuffed Animals, "rogue" taxidermists Divya Anantharaman and Katie Innamorato demystify the practice, shatter the gross stereotypes and make taxidermy accessible to anyone, anywhere. Committed to ethical and sustainable sourcing, Anantharaman and Innamorato are part of the vanguard of taxidermists who bring a sense of fun and experimentation to this old-school hobby. In their sold-out classes in Brooklyn, they teach hundreds of taxidermy novices how to create mantle-worthy pieces out of small birds and mammals. Both a how-to manual and a strangely captivating gift book, Stuffed Animals is the definitive guide to a growing DIY movement.

Taxidermy, once the province of natural history and dedicated to the pursuit of lifelike realism, has recently resurfaced in the world of contemporary art,culture, and interior design. In Speculative Taxidermy, Giovanni Aloi offers a comprehensive mapping of the discourses and practices that have enabled the emergence of taxidermy in contemporary art. Drawing on the speculative turn in philosophy and recovering past alternative histories of art and materiality from a biopolitical perspective, Aloi theorizes speculative taxidermy: a powerful interface that unlocks new ethical and political opportunities in human-animal relationships and speaks to how animal representation conveys the urgency of climate change, capitalist exploitation, and mass extinction. A resolutely nonanthropocentric take on the materiality of one of the most controversial mediums in art, this approach relentlessly questions past and present ideas of human separation from the animal kingdom. It situates taxidermy as a powerful interface between humans and animals, rooted in a shared ontological and physical vulnerability. Carefully considering a select number of key examples including the work of Nandipha Mntambo, Maria Papadimitriou, Mark Dion, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Roni Horn, Oleg Kulik, Steve Bishop, Snaebjornsdottir/Wilson, and Cole Swanson,Speculative Taxidermy contextualizes the resilient presence of animal skin in the gallery space as a productive opportunity to rethink ethical and political stances in human-animal relationships.

Taxidermy, once the province of natural history and dedicated to the pursuit of lifelike realism, has recently resurfaced in the world of contemporary art,culture, and interior design. In Speculative Taxidermy, Giovanni Aloi offers a comprehensive mapping of the discourses and practices that have enabled the emergence of taxidermy in contemporary art. Drawing on the speculative turn in philosophy and recovering past alternative histories of art and materiality from a biopolitical perspective, Aloi theorizes speculative taxidermy: a powerful interface that unlocks new ethical and political opportunities in human-animal relationships and speaks to how animal representation conveys the urgency of climate change, capitalist exploitation, and mass extinction. A resolutely nonanthropocentric take on the materiality of one of the most controversial mediums in art, this approach relentlessly questions past and present ideas of human separation from the animal kingdom. It situates taxidermy as a powerful interface between humans and animals, rooted in a shared ontological and physical vulnerability. Carefully considering a select number of key examples including the work of Nandipha Mntambo, Maria Papadimitriou, Mark Dion, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Roni Horn, Oleg Kulik, Steve Bishop, Snaebjornsdottir/Wilson, and Cole Swanson,Speculative Taxidermy contextualizes the resilient presence of animal skin in the gallery space as a productive opportunity to rethink ethical and political stances in human-animal relationships.

Taxidermy has come in from the cold. Stuffed animals are appearing everywhere from chic apartments to luxury boutiques. Museums have been dusting down their collections to put them back on display, while contemporary artists have rejuvenated the practice. This book reveals the art of taxidermy in all its weird and wonderful glory, from its beginnings as a tool of natural history research, through crazes for anthropomorphic, zoomorphic and fake taxidermy, to its rediscovery by the art, fashion and design worlds of the 21st century.

With over thirty years of inside information, experience and knowledge, the author shares many timely secrets and methods of success between the covers. Starting with firearm safety and moving forward to the deeper and more specialized information that can be used by every hunter, taxidermist, guide and outfitter, trapper, wildlife and fur dealer and any person interested in the wise use of our natural resources. Even the Native American will find essential information useful for all tribes and cultures! Hunting, Laws and regulations, importing wildlife, choosing rifle calibers, reloading, field care, trophies, medical, survival, wildlife disease, taxidermy, buying and tanning skins and hides, formulas, cooking, tips and techniques, and much more is shared with the public. Never before has this specific knowledge been pulled together in print format. Everything is presented in easy learning informational blocks and topics. This book is worth many times the cover price and will make and save money for you in a variety of ways. The author does not shy away from the tough and even harsh questions and answers! You know what to do. Every page has timeless information to make you a more informed individual, a successful and better hunter, a strong businessman and a quality taxidermist.

From sixteenth-century cabinets of wonders to contemporary animal art, The Breathless Zoo: Taxidermy and the Cultures of Longing examines the cultural and poetic history of preserving animals in lively postures. But why would anyone want to preserve an animal, and what is this animal-thing now? Rachel Poliquin suggests that taxidermy is entwined with the enduring human longing to find meaning with and within the natural world. Her study draws out the longings at the heart of taxidermy--the longing for wonder, beauty, spectacle, order, narrative, allegory, and remembrance. In so doing, The Breathless Zoo explores the animal spectacles desired by particular communities, human assumptions of superiority, the yearnings for hidden truths within animal form, and the loneliness and longing that haunt our strange human existence, being both within and apart from nature.

Claire Morgan’s (*1980) sculptures shake up our notion of a world neatly separated into nature and culture. She allows nature to break into the context of art by creating minimalist arrangements of plastic bits, seeds, and corpses. The artist uses taxidermy animals to fracture this supposed geometrical clarity, intermingling the artificial and the constructed with life and death. With her spaces and eco-poetic sculptures, Morgan creates a refuge for nature as still life, deftly bringing us closer to the endangered beauty and fragility of her fauna. Text in English and German.