Bodies...the Exhibition

Bodies...the Exhibition, originally uploaded by minicloud.

I saw Bodies... The Exhibition this weekend and loved it. I highly recommend going if it's in a city near you. The tickets were a little expensive at $26.50 each, plus $6 for the audio wands. The extra wand info wasn't bad but not necessary to get a fulfilling experience. The exhibit galleries were simple; made up of both painted gyp divider walls and temporary curtain walls. Full figures depicting various systems of the body are posed on simple platforms and left out open. Visitors are trusted not to touch the artifacts themselves. Smaller organs and parts are displayed in simple cases with white backgrounds and basic black text labels. There is virtually no flare to the galleries aside from the occasional painted wall or artist's rendering projected on large surfaces. The bodies themselves and the accompanying text were so interesting that not much else was really necessary to make it a successful traveling show.

They said the visit usually takes 90 minutes but I was there a full 2 hours, which flew by as I was completely enveloped in the subject matter. The only complaints I had about the exhibit itself is that most of the text was quite small, both in the labels and on the fun facts hanging around the galleries and lighting could have been improved on the backsides of the full figures. They are placed so you can walk around them and view them from all sides but really only one side was illuminated in most cases. There were actual doctors walking around answering questions too, which was great because folks had a lot of questions. I would have liked to see another doctor or two there as I had several questions that came up when no doctor was in the gallery I was in. Still, the ones that were there were great, very knowledgeable and seemed genuinely happy to be there and excited about the show.

I learned so much about the human body I don't even know where to begin. Most surprisingly for me was how quickly young fetuses actually look like tiny humans. I was surprised to see a fetus as small as a pea with it's tiny head, arms and legs. Those who are sensitive to this sort of subject matter can bypass this gallery and stick with the adults, which surprisingly felt more like a biology lesson then I had expected. Going in I thought I wouldn't be able to get over the fact that these human displays were once real live people but after entering I found myself so fascinated that I was halfway through the entire exhibition before it crossed my mind again. The most visually impressive exhibit was of the circulatory system with dozens of liquid filled cases holding just the arteries of the body. You can see one example in the photo above.

Definitely take the opportunity to visit Bodies if you have a chance. It's around only for a limited time and I guarantee you'll learn something you didn't know before.