This book is the product of a photographic residency at the University of Cambridge Zoology Museum in 2007-8 and is part of a long-term project inspired by Sigmund Freud's essay, 'The Uncanny'.

The photographer Alexandra Murphy is interested in documenting specimens that the museum has in both its displays as well as the unseen 'spirits' store, focusing on the uncanny nature of inanimate objects and the Freudian fear of the inanimate becoming animate.

The title of the project is a bit of word-play on the suspended life/death of the specimens as well as the strong alcoholic fluid the specimens are kept in.

The exhibition photographs are embedded in resin or pinned inside box frames, to emulate the impression of some Victorian zoologist's specimen collection.