For those of you in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, I recommend visiting Gunter von Hagen's Body Worlds I: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies, showing at the Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas until May 28th. If the other collections are in your area, take the time to see them. Currently, Body Worlds II is showing in Chicago and Body Worlds III is showing in Phoenix. The next three cities on the Body Worlds tour are in Montreal, Charlotte, and Portland, OR.
There were many interesting displays in the collection. The bodies are preserved through various processes called plastination. Basically, water is removed from the body and replaced with polymers. The exhibit's stated purpose and mission is the education of laymen [and clergy] about the human body, leading to better health awareness. All of the human plastinates in von Hagen's exhibitions are willing donors who wished to be of use to mankind in this way after their deaths.
We were probably most amazed by some of the displays of the circulatory system. These bodies were prepared by injecting a red dye and plastinating agent into their blood vessels, then using chemicals and ultrasound to dissolve away their flesh and bones. As a result, only the circulatory system is left behind. It was also strange to see things like artificial hips and knees and other surgical repairs to the skeletal system.
The full-body displays take great advantage of the artistry of the human anatomy at particular moments. One of my favorites was a plastination of a man and a horse together with the man's front and back separated from the rest of his body. It is called the Equestrian and is pictured on the cover of our catalogue of the exhibit, shown above. This piece took three and a half years to complete. I also greatly appreciated the Chess Player.
Melisa's favorite was the Pregnant Woman, who is an 8-months pregnant woman lying on her side with her arm propping her upper body up. The bottom of her torso is cut away to reveal the baby in her womb. The description states that this woman decided to donate her body and her child (who also died naturally shortly thereafter) when she was informed that she had a terminal disease.
The exhibition was presented respectfully and brought to mind several scriptures, such as:
Psalm 73:26
"My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
Job 19:25-27
"I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!"
Psalm 119:120
"My flesh trembles in fear of you; I stand in awe of your laws."
Psalm 139:13-14
"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."
Isaiah 44:24
"This is what the LORD says—your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the LORD, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself."
Ezekiel 36:26
"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh."
Ezekiel 37:6
"I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD."
John 1:14
"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."
John 6:54-56
"Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him."
Colossians 1:24
"Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church."
For further study, I recommend the "Theology of the Body" a series of 129 lectures given by Pope John Paul II during his Wednesday audiences in the Pope Paul VI Hall between September 1979 and November 1984. It was the first major teaching of his pontificate and the complete addresses were later compiled and published as a single work entitled The Theology of the Body: Human Love in the Divine Plan. It is one of the most powerful and edifying books I have read.
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