Everything can be taken seriously, especially the non-serious.
—Madelon Vriesendorp

​

In the basement vaults of Blythe House in Hammersmith, West London, intriguing objects of ostensibly varied persuasions, all linked to the history of the human body, are sequestered. Forming Henry Wellcome’s collection of medical curiosities, the eclectic collection includes the scientific (surgical instruments, skeletons, anatomical models), the magical (votive offerings, masks, amulets) and the (extra-)ordinary (snuffboxes, a memento mori brooch and a piece of tattooed human skin). In a more modest setting of a North London flat described as being unusually flexible because of its ‘six rooms and a corridor’ (p. 269), another kind of archive, different in spirit but comparable to Wellcome’s centric one, is in the making.² Madelon Vriesendorp’s ‘Object Archive’ (ongoing since 1972) is a treasure trove of miniatures, mostly plastic souvenirs ranging from skeletons, nuns and aliens, to tacky skyscrapers, pagodas, Russian dolls and sexually suggestive body parts. Neatly arranged on top of an old drawing cabinet, these plastic faces and façades continuously watch over the room.