Old books bound in human skin make for spooky Halloween reading

Why did a dying 19th-century robber want his skin to become a book cover? This Halloween, Anatomica and Dark Archives reveal our changing relationship with the body

By Chris Stokel-Walker

THE human body can fascinate and enthral – but it can also appal. Two new books highlight our complex relationship with the body and, interestingly for the queasy 21st century, don’t blink at the facts.

Joanna Ebenstein co-founded the now closed Morbid Anatomy Museum in New York. She spent years studying how …