Sadly, eccentrics, and oddballs are few and far between these days - and political correctness has killed off the 'freak shows'. Thank goodness for Viktor Wynd, whose love for bones, macabre items and folklore is keeping the spirit of the sideshows alive through his work, and marvellously weird museum.
We all know someone who has a huge collection of weird bits and bobs, treasures picked up from boot sales and dying relatives, antiques fairs and charity shops - perhaps you yourself have amassed an impressive haul of “interesting items”.
No matter how good your collection is - or you think it is - it will pale in comparison to Viktor Wynd’s.
Artist Viktor is passionate about macabre objects, and has got his mitts on enough to start his own mini museum in Hackney, east London, and now he's brought out a stunning new book celebrating and explaining his unique treasures...
The Unnatural History Museum (out now, priced £35) showcases Viktor’s best items, relics and rarities relating to mermaids, shrunken heads, dandies to mass murderers, and Papua New Guinean penis gourds, his menagerie of bizarre objects knows no bounds.
LOOK THROUGH THE GALLERY TO SEE EXHIBITS AND COCKTAIL BAR PHOTOS
The Last Tuesday Society is 50/50 cocktail bar/freaky emporium, with a two-headed kitten, gold-plated hippo skull, preserved insects, skeletons and shrunken heads all waiting to be gawped at as you sip a potent tipple or two.
But there’s good news for those who aren’t able to get to Viktor’s museum (or for people who have visited but looked at the cocktail menu more than the exhibits), he’s bringing out a book celebrating of some of his best pieces, and sharing the stories behind them, too.
Some of his items hark back to the Victorian sideshow era, when it was a lot easier to see the weird and wonderful up close.
We’ve previously told you about the world’s most famous four-legged woman, Myrtle Corbyn, a huge celeb from the ‘sideshow’ era.
