How a culture approaches and depicts death says a lot about the way it faces life. In America, death is a fixture of pop culture, shown in fantasies that are violent but curiously detached from reality and moral lessons. In Mexico, death occupies a much different cultural space.

Muerte! explores the lurid history of Mexico's fascination with death, starting with pre-Columbian mythological depictions of death as part of a constant cycle, to the Colonial period's unhappy marriage of native views with Judeo-Christian fire and brimstone, to J. G. Posada's remarkable turn-of-the-century engravings of death that were popular images in newspapers of the time.

The author has organized a compellingly dark array of paintings, engravings, and photographs from the grisly but popular tabloids Alarma! and Peligro! Essays by Diego Rivera and Mexican scholars offer insights on the Day of the Dead, Catholic ritual, and the current lust for sensational gore.