Also this issue: Kelly's Girl John Kelly is a man of many faces -- including Joni Mitchell’s. -David Warner Drawing Borders It's Mural Arts Month, and the Mural Arts Program is celebrating new growth and facing new controversy. -Ted Mann Nancy Crow at Snyderman Gallery Form and function collide in Nancy Crow's quilts. -Robin Rice Stan and Jan's Plan -Debra Auspitz Balanchine Favorites at Pennsylvania Ballet -Janet Anderson Crowns at McCarter Theatre -Toby Zinman Fully Committed at Philadelphia Theatre Co. -David Anthony Fox Eternal Spiral Project's I Stand Before You Naked -David Anthony Fox

October 24-30, 2002

books

Word From Your Mtter

by David Warner

Six years ago, Margit Detweiler wrote an award-winning story for City Paper about the cancellation of the grisly, gorgeous calendar of The Mütter Museum, Philadelphia's beloved museum of medical oddities. The suspension was seen by some as part of an effort by the new management of Mütter's parent institution, The Philadelphia College of Physicians, to sanitize the museum and to dim the spotlight on its director Gretchen Worden, who had charmed the likes of David Letterman with her droll medical show-and-tells. (Giant gallstones, anyone?) According to management, the focus on the "strange" and the "bizarre" was drawing attention from the college's broader mission, that of advancing the spread of modern healthcare information.

Well, the more things change... The Mütter calendar was indeed shelved in 1997, only to be revived in 2000 after its replacements, sober progressions through medical history, failed to make money. And the Mütter itself, far from being downplayed, now has a bigger national profile than ever, thanks to cable TV shows like National Geographic's Mummy Road Show. And this week, Worden appears at Borders to celebrate the publication of Blast Books' Mütter Museum, a collection of photos from all seven years of the calendars. Shot by a roster of distinguished photographers (among them Rosamond Purcell and William Wegman) and impeccably put together by Blast's Laura Lindgren, it's the ultimate Halloween gift for anyone fascinated by the human animal, from syphilitic tongue to Siamese twins.

The publication of the book also marks an ironic milestone -- the calendar, once more, has been canceled. Worden and Lindgren decided that their labor of love requires more time and effort than they can spare.

But there's a difference this time around.

"This time," Worden says, "we canceled the calendar."

Gretchen Worden talks about her book, Mütter Museum, Tue., Oct. 29, 7 p.m., Borders, 17th and Walnut sts., 215-568-7400.