Textbook drawings or plastic models are two of the typical ways to study the human anatomy, but BODIES… The Exhibition offers something new and more realistic: authentic, preserved human bodies. The exhibition, coming to the former CompUSA building at Easton Market Center on June 30, will showcase full human skeletons with muscles and organs still attached in various athletic poses, as well as skeletal, muscular, reproductive, respiratory and circulatory systems.
The exhibit will be on display at Easton until Dec. 31.
“The exhibition will allow the visitor inside a world that has only been available to the medical profession,” says Arnie Geller, President and CEO of Premier Exhibitions, Inc. “It offers an insider’s view of the systems that keep us alive and carry out the activities that we often take for granted.”
The exhibit features nine galleries with descriptions on each of the many display cases as well as “Factoids” on the walls. Unlike models or drawings, which are often idealized, the specimens show the body as it really exists. Some of the specimens compare healthy organs to those damaged by overeating, lack of exercise, or smoking.
According to Dr. Roy Glover, chief medical advisor for BODIES, the exhibition receives universally positive feedback. “Even though we use real human bodies to teach people about themselves, this is a life promoting exhibition. When people begin to look and see how beautiful and complex their bodies really are, they realize that it is important and practical for them to find out about themselves," he says.
Because BODIES is an educational exhibit, Premier Exhibitions works with Columbus and surrounding school districts to create educational aids that are compatible with the school curriculums. More than 300,000 school children have been to the exhibition since it opened. Audio tours are available for children and teacher’s guides can be requested on its Web site at www.bodiestheexhibition.com.
BODIES exhibits specimens obtained from medical university laboratories that specialize in polymer preservation, a chemical treatments process which turns the bodies into a rubber-like substance to prevent decay. In this way the bodies are preserved after dissection and last indefinitely. A whole body can take up to a year to prepare, but small organs can take as little as one week. This preservation technique was fist developed in the late 1970s in Germany and has been used ever since mainly outside of the United States.
Seeing the bodies “is like looking in a mirror,” says Dr. Glover. “Each of the muscles and nerves that you see in the galleries are actually in your body. This gives the public an appreciation for how complicated their bodies are and introduces them to the language of their body.”
BODIES… The Exhibition has been seen by more than 4 million visitors worldwide since 2004 in cities such as Lisbon, Pittsburgh, Prague, San Diego, Washington D.C., Las Vegas, and New York. The Exhibition is one of four traveling exhibitions by Premier Exhibitions based in Atlanta, which also provides the Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition featured at COSI in 2005.
The exhibition will be open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. until the end of December. Adult tickets are $22.50, seniors and students $20, children (12 and under) $17. Discounts are available to groups and audio tours are and additional $6. Tickets are available at www.bodiestickets.com.