Wim Delvoye’s Creepy Stained Glass Windows Are Made From Recycled X-Rays

This building may look like a standard Gothic cathedral at first glance, but if you take a closer look, you'll be amazed. <a href="http://www.wetheurban.com/post/65789175114/art-x-ray-and-anatomical-stained-glass-windows-by">Thousands of x-rays</a> have been applied to the structure's windows using traditional stained glass-making techniques to create a macabre—yet beautiful—display of skeletons, bones, and teeth.

Delvoye has made over the jewel tones saints normally <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stained_glass" target="_blank">depicted in stained glass</a>. One of his creepy creations shows two skeletons in embrace, hugging and kissing in panels that make up an arched gothic window. Jeweled stained glass diamonds connect the panels.

At first glance, one doesn’t see anything extraordinary in the beautifully intricate <a href="http://inhabitat.com/beautiful-garden-chapel-made-entirely-from-bottles/" target="_blank">Gothic Chapel </a>used in the project.

But upon closer inspection, the prismatic colors in each window pane are actually body parts, bones and full skeletons. The gorgeous windows, installed in an intricate chapel made from laser cut steel in the style of a seventeenth century <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flemish_Baroque_painting" target="_blank">Flemish Baroque</a> church.

Other pieces are more abstract. Swirls of spinal columns intersect rows and rows of x-rays of teeth, set against blood red glass. Skulls, spines and hips intermingle with bold colors of stained glass, unified together to make up giant windows.

The translucent x-rays <a href="http://inhabitat.com/maglight-transforms-magazines-into-a-stained-glass-like-table-lamp/" target="_blank">illuminate just as the colored glass does</a>, creating a dazzling, yet morbid display. Using traditional Medeival craftsmanship, Delvoye’s Macabre windows create a truly spooky atmosphere.

Delvoye is no stranger to the morbid, also dabbling in the macabre with his series called “Art Farm,” where here tattoos pig skins discarded from slaughterhouses in the United States.

This building may look like a standard Gothic cathedral at first glance, but if you take a closer look, you'll be amazed. <a href="http://www.wetheurban.com/post/65789175114/art-x-ray-and-anatomical-stained-glass-windows-by">Thousands of x-rays</a> have been applied to the structure's windows using traditional stained glass-making techniques to create a macabre—yet beautiful—display of skeletons, bones, and teeth.