Low-Stakes Book Club: The Ethics of Displaying Human Remains

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Philadelphia’s Mütter Museum Is Reviewing Its Collection of Human Remains. Here’s Why That Matters for Disability Representation.

By Riva Lehrer from Art in America, June 16, 2023

The Mutter Museum has come up in our discussions a couple of times. People rightfully question the ethics and provenance behind displaying human remains. I thought that people might be interested in the perspective of Riva Lehrer, a renowned artist, disability activist, and writer who was one of my mentors when I was a young artist in Chicago.

In Riva's words, "As the Mütter debates the fate of their holdings, in other quadrants of my community (I am Disabled), complex ideas about the display of nonnormative bodies are emerging. For so long, we’ve been absent from movies, art, and books, save for the occasional ableist trope. We are starting to recognize that this museum…