Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones
Are you familiar with the term ‘dark tourism’? No? Me neither. Although, if I had thought about it, I would have realised that some sort of colourful phrase would be needed for people whose morbid fascinations prompt them to visit sites of mortal commemoration and, on occasion, steal from them.
It turns out that there are lots of enthusiasts of cemeteries, crypts, charnel houses, ossuaries and the general paraphernalia of death, and perhaps chief among them is Carla Valentine, who does, however, have the platform of a professional interest to justify her interest. Carla is technical curator of a pathology museum. And she loves it. There is a good deal to learn from the remnants that we inevitably leave behind us when we expire. And of course, those human remains are, as I rather trenchantly observe, not junk. But neither are they despised. Carla has an inspiring variety of stories to tell of the human responses to the inevitable detritus of existence. The Language of Bones is about the places, and the responses, and the celebration by the living of the remnants of the dead. But most of all, it embraces the sheer fact of life that is… what’s left afterwards.
Carla Valentine – Sphere – £22.00
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