Behind the gated entryway of Philadelphia's Mütter Museum, the winding corridors of its interior are piled with preserved anatomical grotesqueries and aged pictures of medical mysteries throughout history—a grand place to throw a party. Who could miss an opportunity to toast with the palate tumor of Grover Cleveland?

It was here that, in celebration of their fourth print annual, Painted Bride Quarterly held an event in honor of its "Body" issue, one of four themed issues featured in the book. The event included a lecture by Frank Bender and a reading by two authors from the issue.

After a tour of the museum, guests were brought to the lecture room to sip wine and allow the contents of the museum to sink in, while in the corner of the room, a handful of students plucked melodious tunes on their guitars.

Painted Bride Quarterly's co-editor Kathy Volk Miller introduced Bender as a "re-composer of the decomposed," whose pioneer work in the field of facial reconstruction of homicide victims has aided in solving scores of otherwise-unsolved murder cases. He is the co-founder of the Vidocq Society and was voted Man of the Month in Esquire.

Bender stumbled into the field of reconstruction almost by accident: he visited a morgue with a friend who showed him a horribly damaged skull, to which he replied, "I know what she looked like." He continued with work in "age projection," which helps police find criminals who have been at large for several years.

But technology is now doing on a computer screen what Bender does with his sculpture. Bender does not see this as an improvement over his own methods of sculpture: "What are we doing with computers but mimicking what is going on [in our heads]?" he said. But what computer reconstruction "lacks is the intuition."

With a smile curling on the side of his face, Bender explained that to find an example of the power of intuition, one need not look any further than the building in which his audience sat. The pivotal identification that solved the murder case of Rosella Atkinson took place in the winding halls of the Mütter Museum. After examining Atkinson's jewelry, back-story and other variables, Bender decided that the bust of the girl should be made facing up to the sky, as if looking for something more from life. The rest of the story is better told by Bender himself, which can be found in Ted Botha's new book The Girl with the Crooked Nose.

After Bender finished his lecture, the music kicked up again and the guests rose from their seats to chat or flip through complimentary back-issues of PBQ. The evening came to a close with the readings, after which the guests departed for home to brave the rain and take with them a few chilling tales.

For more on Frank Bender visit http://members.aol.com/bender69/index.htm