Blast Books publishes illustrated books on extraordinary cultural and historical subjects.
Our newest titles are Hidden Treasure: The National Library of Medicine
and Fragonard Museum: The Écorchés.

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Hidden Treasure, a spectacular book with 450 images, celebrating the 175th anniversary of the National Library of Medicine, the world's largest medical library.

"My fantasy holiday is a week spent locked in the archives of the National Library of Medicine, so you can imagine how excited I am about this book. It's an incomparable treasure trove. I hugged it to my chest like a four-year-old with a new pair of shoes."
— Mary Roach, author of Stiff and Packing for Mars

Publication date: April 2, 2012
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"mesmerizing..."


"...a visually voluptuous volume...always amazing in its splendor."


"Amazing images from the archives at the National Library of Medicine..."
Boing Boing

"exquisite..."


"a compendium of the greatest graphic as well as historical and human interest...revelatory..."

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Eighteenth-century French anatomist Honoré Fragonard's Écorchés—preserved dissected animal and human cadavers—are extraordinary works of virtuosic skill that have survived nearly two hundred and fifty years in the Fragonard Museum in Alfort, on the outskirts of Paris. They are the real and very rare18th-century precursor to BodyWorlds and other modern-day anatomical specimen exhibitions.

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Mütter Museum Historic Medical Photographs was the #1 most popular pictorial attraction on Newsweeek.com for 2008

See A Century of Medical Oddities
Newsweek.com

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"Mad Men meets Flash Gordon."
The New York Times

"A doozy."
Boing Boing

"Stunning."


See author Megan Prelinger
on CBS-TV


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"This is the most extraordinary book I have ever seen—the perfect coffee table book for all the households where I'd most like to be invited for coffee."
Mary Roach

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Listen to Dissection co-author John Warner on NPR's All Things Considered
Listen to Dissection co-author John Warner on NPR's All Things Considered