You can try to describe Gunther von Hagens'
BODY WORLDS: The Original Exhibition of Real Human Bodies, but you really have to see it to understand and appreciate it.
Gunther von Hagen developed the process of plastination, which - in short - preserves the different parts of the human body better than any previous process ever devloped. Yes, it's good by to the days of formaldehyle. The result is entire bodies and body parts, called plastinates, can be preserved in a way that allow you to view the inside of the human body on more levels, with more detail, than ever before.
In the past, only those in medical fields and studies had access to cadavers, which was the only way to view the internal workings of the body in detail. The average person was limited to casts of skeletons, some poor facsimiles of the muscular system and many drawings in books.
With plastination, we get to not only see the real skelital and muscular structures, but also, the ligaments, the nervous system, and the vascular system. Hagen's full body plastinates are positioned in different positions to better appreciate how all of body's internal systems are layed out and relate to one another. There is the chess player, which gives a fascinating view of the back and how the nerves spread out from the spianl cord accross the body. The gymnast shows the muscles and ligaments in action. The man riding a horse (the horse being plastinated also) gives an amazing view into contrast in size of specific bones and muscles between the human body and that of the horse. There one room just for the pregnant woman and her unborn fetus. With an entire display of plastinate fetus' in every stage of the growth process. Most of the plastinates are also displayed so that you can walk all of the way around them for a full 360 degree view. The plastinates are disected in a multitude of ways to demonstate how all of the different systems are related to one another. There are many display cases of plastinate body parts that are equally fascinating. In many cases, healthy organs and their deseased counterparts are displayed side by side. The inclusion of the vascular system was a complete surprise to me and the icing on the cake.
The exhibit has been running for over 10 years around the world and seen by more than 20 million people. Additionally, over time the show has evolved with an ever changing variety of full body plastinations in new poses.
We saw the exhibit at the
Milwaukee Public Museum. It is running there from 1/18/08 through 6/1/08. Tickets are $21 for adults and $15 for children 3 - 17. All tickets include full access to the museum so the adult price for the exhibition is just $10 above general admission. The entry times for the exhibition are every 15 minutes throughout the day. This keeps the exhibit from being overcrowded and you can take as much time as you like to soak it all in.
Additional
BODY WORLDS exhibits are also startg in in Baltimore and Manchester, England in February, and in Los Angeles in March.
The exhibition is large and very comprehensive. It winds through at least six rooms and we spent over 1 1/2 hours going throught it and we could have taken longer, which you can. Many people were using the headphones that were available at an additional charge to listen to more detailed descriptions of the displays. We did not try those, but those that did got even more out of the exhibition.
We made it a family trip, my wife, myself, and our 17 and 14 year old children. The motivation came from my wife who has been an R.N. all of here working life. I short, we all thought it was great. We all learned and had fun doing it together. No a one of us had anything negative to say about the exhibit. Additionally, I have recommended it highly to anyone that is thinking about going - and that includes you!
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