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‘This house has good bones.’
This has never been more true than in the homes of the families featured in Paul Gambino’s astonishing new book, The art of living in gothic style.
Her sumptuous photographs reveal some creepy decor choices that would be right out of a horror movie, from vintage Ouija boards to cabinets filled with skulls, Victorian taxidermy and even a vintage electric chair.
These homes belong to a growing community of people he calls “modern goths,” whose fashion and decorating choices push the boundaries of style and redefine what is considered beautiful.
Not everyone will agree.
A very rare Victorian fetus skeleton in the Connecticut home of Regina and Ryan Cohn
Paul Gambino’s new book, The Art of Gothic Living, features sumptuous photographs that reveal some creepy decorating choices that would be more at home in a horror movie.
“So who and what is the modern Gothic?” he writes.
‘The mentality of a “Goth” has been around for generations. Images of the original art students at the Bauhaus in Germany around 1927 could easily be mistaken for a photo taken on the King’s Road, London, in 1981.
‘For the next two decades, the music produced in this scene echoed the sobering thought that life is fragile, that sadness always triumphs over happiness, and that physical and mental anguish is an inescapable factor in life; and yet, despite this bleak outlook, life is worth living because your favorite band is playing this weekend.’
Modern Gothic decor is, then, the physical manifestation of this mindset, he explains, and can include anything from dark velvet curtains to ancient religious iconography, as well as human or animal bones and taxidermy, or antique medical devices.
James Freeman and Kate Fugate in South Georgia
“We wanted to focus on unique pieces with historical relevance,” says James Freeman, of his and his partner, Kate Fugate’s, slightly unconventional decorating choices.
His most recent acquisition, for example, is a huge 3.6-metre-high fairground banner that covers the entire ceiling of his living room. Originally from the World of Wonders freak show tour, whose origins date back to the 1940s, the centrepiece depicts a two-headed baby.
The living room of James Freeman and Kate Fugate’s Georgia home is dominated by a banner from an old sideshow, featuring a two-headed baby.
“The banner was used for an exhibition of wet specimens of conjoined twins,” James explains. “Unfortunately, someone took offence to the display of the babies and the exhibitors were arrested and forced to give the specimen a ‘Christian’ burial.”
Another highlight is its “Seance Room,” equipped with stuffed animal heads, an original “spirit trumpet” to amplify the voices of the dead, and a very rare “automatic writing tablet” from the 1890s, used to communicate with spirits.
However, James insists that while He collects everything that has to do with contact with the undead; as an atheist, he does not believe in ghosts.
Kate, for her part, isn’t so sure: “I’d love to have a cozy little ghost to share our house with,” she says.
Richard Marini in Rockland County, New York
A vast collection of pristine human skulls and skeletons dominate the small apartment that was once a garage and woodworking space for a local artist and is now Richard Marini’s rental home.
One of Richard’s favourite pieces is the skull of a five-year-old child “with the teeth exposed revealing the adult teeth that have not yet erupted,” he enthuses.
A lawyer’s shelf contains 25 skulls, plus wet specimens in jars, including a brain with complete spinal cord, an eyeball and a dissected brain.
Other particularly grim items include old photographs of medical students admiring their stuffed cadavers and multiple “wet” specimens, including his all-time favorite: a complete head that came from a retired doctor’s collection.
‘The cat fetus that is dissected to show the organs and the cat head that is also dissected also feature prominently.’
Richard’s day job is a far cry from his macabre collection: he works as a purchasing manager for a local heating and air conditioning company. But his colleagues are more amused than frightened.
‘Whenever there’s a box on my desk, it’s not uncommon for one of my coworkers to comment, “Hey, is there a skull in there?”
Regina and Ryan Cohn in Connecticut
Regina and Ryan Cohn, a former power couple in New York’s “oddities community,” have curated their vast collection over decades, which includes some extremely rare and highly sought-after pieces.
This includes a life-size 18th-century Crucifix of Saints from Spain, which comes complete with glass eyes and an exposed ribcage created from human ribs, and hangs on its staircase.
They also have a rare Victorian foetal skeleton that was once on display at a medical school.
The friends staying in the guest room are convinced they heard banging noises during the night and believe the house is haunted, but Ryan is unfazed.
“We don’t know,” he says. “Regina and I feel very comfortable in this house. We feel safe here.”
“I’ve heard weird things, but it’s an old house and old houses make weird noises. But damn, if it was haunted, I wouldn’t move in. There would be an entrance fee to visit.”
A life-size 18th-century crucifix from Spain features glass eyes and an exposed ribcage created from human ribs.
“Rosie” lies peacefully in a coffin next to one of the church’s stained glass windows. Bridgett believes she materialized shortly after her arrival.
Bridgett Johnson and Dave Moscato in Western Ohio
Appropriately for a couple devoted to gothic decor, Bridgett Johnson and Dave Moscato live in a converted 1880s church, with its own cemetery across the street.
Bridgett loves chatting to the residents buried there: “If they’re restless and want to talk, they’ll talk back,” she says.
And his aesthetic choices reflect that same fascination with the dead, in the form of a vast collection of other people’s deceased relatives.
“They say, ‘I don’t have room for Great Uncle John or my spinster Aunt Grace, but I know you’ll hang them on your wall.’ And I do,” she says.
But the centerpiece of the couple’s home is the ancient skeleton of a woman they call “Rosie,” who lies peacefully in a coffin next to one of the church’s stained glass windows and who Bridgett believes materialized shortly after her arrival at the church.
The couple had been away for two weeks, and when they returned, she walked in to find the piano playing by itself.
“I ran out of the house and it took me hours to work up the courage to go back inside,” she said.
Andrew Delaney in Victoria, Australia
An antique electric chair stands proudly in the hallway of Andrew Delaney’s home. Once a warehouse, tattoo parlour and gaming space, very little has changed – from the original 1960s vinyl flooring to the exposed ceiling infrastructure.
“The exposed brick really adds warmth and character,” says Andrew. “I painted the two end walls, the windowsills and some of the ceiling pipes black. That’s pretty much it.”
What sets her home apart, however, is the collection of macabre finds that appeal to her fondness for “social pieces dedicated to mourning and death,” collected from second-hand, furniture and oddity stores.
An antique electric chair is part of Andrew’s collection of “brutal-looking medical items”
‘I am fascinated by objects related to human anatomy. However, I am more interested in ancient, brutal-looking medical items than in real human body parts… If the piece has an interesting history or can puzzle someone, it might end up in my house.
‘Although, she adds, “if I lived in a haunted place, it would depend on what kind of things were going on. I wouldn’t mind milk going bad before its expiration date or things moving around the house. But if someone was groping me while I was sleeping or I saw my face peeling in the bathroom mirror, that would be a different story.”
Images reprinted with permission from The art of living in the Gothic:Dark Decor for the Modern Macabre © 2024 Paul Gambino, published by Union Square & Co