PITTSBURGH ― They crawl and they feed on rotting flesh and sinew, appearing to pulsate as they strip the skull and thorax of a small rodent. The sight of them might give a chill or turn a stomach, but it is simply nature at work.

The grubs of dermestid (or skin, hide or carrion) beetles are scavengers that feed on the carcasses of the deceased and are commonly found on roadkill or, more grimly, on abandoned corpses.

But in a 208-liter aquarium tank on the coffee table of a Pittsburgh apartment, they are an integral part of the process through which Bill “Biilzebub” Wilson a.k.a. The Bone Collector creates his art and gives new life ― and beauty ― to that which is already dead.

What Wilson does is called “articulating” the skeletons of dead animals ― from mice to cows, deer and lizards ― posing them in natural postures, or creating jewelry or artwork. By his own admission it’s a niche pursuit and one that is met with interest if not raised eyebrows.

“Certainly not a lot of people get into this the way that I have,” he deadpanned.

A horror movie buff with Frankenstein-looking scars tattooed on his wrists and a bushy mustache and muttonchops, the 32-year-old Crawford County, Pennsylvania, native came to the city 14 years ago to study industrial design with a focus on special effects at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh.

While working at a seasonal haunted house at Station Square 10 years ago, he added deer mandibles he’d found on a hike to enhance the menacing appearance of the costume of one of the actors. With the leftover bones, he sculpted a lamp base and was hooked after that.

The lamps, dream catchers made with cow mandibles, tables made with cow bone bases and necklaces with pendants of raccoon baculum are among his most popular items. What he doesn’t create himself, he collects in an apartment that looks like a cross between a natural history museum and the set of “The Walking Dead.”

Among his prized possessions: skeletons of a Magellanic penguin from Paraguay and a colugo (a flying lemur) from Indonesia, and the skull of a Nile crocodile.

“I just like the way they look. I think it’s interesting to know what say, a warthog, looks like underneath, what’s holding it up. I find that fascinating. The different shapes. I like to show people that something that they would normally walk by and perceive of as death can be beautiful.”

With no formal education in animal anatomy, osteology or taxidermy, Wilson is self-taught through trial and error and Internet research. His work has been featured in the annual Atrocity Exhibition, a local event celebrating beautiful and grotesque oddities and performance art, and is displayed and available for sale at a local gallery. He said he would like to do museum-level work if provided the opportunity.

His creations follow a four-step process. First, the animal needs to be fleshed ― removing as much from the bones as possible by hand. Then it’s placed in the tank where the dermestid beetles can do their work. The bones are then whitened and cleaned in a mild chemical bath. Then he puts them back together or makes things from them.

By Dan Gigler

(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

(MCT Information Services)