The Breathless Zoo

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In the introduction of The Breathless Zoo, author Rachel Poliquin remarks on an exhibit of taxidermied polar bears retrieved from across Great Britain: "If the bears provide a critique of past collecting practices, they also make material the intrinsic worth of preserving animals." This can be taken as a summary for the entirety of The Breathless Zoo, a beautiful, melancholy exploration of the practice of taxidermy and its complicated history. If you, like me, have ever wandered through a natural history museum and felt both awed and discomforted by the animals on display, this book is for you.
Piera