ELEANOR CROOK

 is an artist  with a special interest in mortality, anatomy and pathology who exhibits internationally in fine art and medical and science museum contexts. She studied Classics and Philosophy  before training in sculpture at Central St Martins and the Royal Academy Schools in the early 90s, where she specialized in wax modeling, lost wax bronze casting and other lifelike media, learning anatomy and Forensic Facial Reconstruction to imbue her figures - more effigy than statue - with a convincing sense of life. The development of this work has taken place through  longterm collaboration with medical museums and historic anatomical wax collections including the Gordon Museum of Pathology, Guy’s Hospital, Ghent University Museum (GUM) and the Vrolik Museum Amsterdam. Most recently she is working with painting, collage sculpture and assemblage on creating a genre of anatomical Expressionism , uncanny yet rooted in medical investigation, mythology and the mysteries of the mind.

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Selected Exhibitions and Events

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Soon opening! 23 September '23 - 24 February '24-  In the Company of Monsters, 2 person show at Reading Museum and Art Gallery in collaboration with Reading University

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2023 Two modern surgery sculptures  commissioned for the new Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons of England - now open to the public

2021 Anatomy and Beyond - a Group exhibition about the future of anatomy at the new Anatomy Museum of Riga, Latvia

2019 Santa Medicina, a new Bronze commission for the Wellcome Galleries of Medicine at London's Science Museum

2017-18 Wax sculpture commission and residency, Vrolik Museum Amsterdam

2017 Conference artist in residence, University of Florence museum of Pathological Anatomy

2017 Conservation placement, La Specola Museum Florence

2017 Chapter Contributor to DEATH: A Graveside Companion (Thames & Hudson, October 24, 2017) a book by Joanna Ebenstein, founder of Morbid Anatomy. 

2017 Artist in Residence , International Congress of Wax Modelling, King's College London 

2017 Lecture Tour Morbid Anatomy Spring Season, Vrolik Museum Amsterdam

2016 Performing Medicine SSC for Barts & Queen Mary's Hospitals with Clod Ensemble

2016 Carved Cadavers project Commission and Conference residency, Winchester University

2016 Lecture Tour Morbid Anatomy Spring Season, Vrolik Museum Amsterdam and Narrenturm medical museum Vienna

2015 Virginia Woolf Waxwork commission, Centre for Life Writing Research, King's College London

2015 Post Mortem Exhibition, a group exhibition at the University of Ghent, Belgium

2015 Wax pathology sculpture commission, The Royal Pharmaceutical Society Museum

2014-2015 Faces of Conflict Exhibition, Royal Albert Memorial Museum Exeter

2014 Fabrica Vitae exhibition ( co-curator and exhibiting) Zakynthos, Greece

2014 Solo exhibition, Florence Nightingale Museum, St Thomas's Hospital. London

2013-2014 The Body is the Instrument of the Soul, Old Operating Theatre Museum, London

2013-2014 Oorlog en Trauma (War and Trauma), Dr Guislain Museum, Ghent, Belgium

2013 Me, You or the Other Person, GV Art, London

2013 "Histories of Thought" exhibition at St Bavo’s Abbey, Ghent, curated by Chantal Pollier (April)

2013 Art & Science group exhibition at the British Library, London UK (February)

etc

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PUBLICATIONS

As illustrator

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Frederik Ruysch and his Thesaurus Anatomicus - a Morbid Guide  - edited by Joanna Ebenstein (coming later in 2022)

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Ophelia Swam - a novel by Kelley Swain 2020

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As Contributor:

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Death - a Graveside Companion by Joanna Ebenstein  2017

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Anatomy Rocks : Flesh and Bones in Contemporary Art  - by Rodolphe Lachat and Emily Evans 2019

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Ceroplastics - The Art of Wax edited by Dr Roberta Ballestriero, Owen Burke and Francesco Maria Galassi 2017 

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Ceroplastics – 2nd International Congress on Wax Modelling Proceedings - edited by Roberta Ballestriero , Owen Burke and Fabio Zamperi (forthcoming in 2022)

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Le Cere Vive di Clemente Susini - Italian edition by Ugo. Amendola, Aurelio. Pastorino | 1 Jan 2014