Artist: Edward Gein

Edward Gein was a taxidermist and furniture designer from Wisconsin. Living on his family farm and selling his handmade furniture at local Flee Markets, Gein didn’t receive notoriety until 1951, though not as an Artist or Craftsman. It was discovered that the medium he used to create his works was human remains. His first efforts were from corpses he removed from his home town’s cemetery, much in the same way as Frankenstein, but in time he killed several women from the town. His last victim was found hanging in a room in his house. In addition to his furniture, Gein also created leather clothing. When he was arrested he was wearing a belt made of the nipples of his victims.  

He never talked about his motivations, but it has been speculated that Gein chose women as his victims because he was projecting anger with his mother onto other women who may have either reminded him of her, or that had in their own way crossed him and he was unable to suppurate the two, thereby being pushed over the edge and lead to violence toward them. This escalated to murder. It is also surmised that the reason he chose to make his creations from the remains of his victims was as a way of disposing of their bodies, or as a way of objectifying them, lessoning a possible feelings of guilt after the fact.

Many aspects of Gein’s may seem cliché, but in reality the cliché is based on his case. The resulting investigation, press releases, and trial lead to the creation of the horror/slasher  genre and directly inspired three infamous characters: Norman Bates (a taxidermist with mother issues), Leather face (a serial killer who lived on a farm who butchered and wore his victims), and Buffalo Bill (a serial killer who preyed on women and made their skin into a costume). There aren’t any pictures of Gein’s work available online, but here are two examples that are credited to being replicas of his work.