Dear Body Worlds 3

Dear Body Worlds 3,

Seeing you today blew my f-ing mind, Body Worlds 3, and so I just had to write you about it to let you know. I'm sure I'm not the first to write a letter to you (and in that, I bet that's actually true - as opposed to some of my other letters), but it had to be done.

For those that don't know what you are, I'm just going to let them do a little bit of research and figure out when you're coming to their town. Any real attempt I make at explaining your exhibit won't wash, anyway. Let's just leave it at human anatomy - the real kind.

My first thought upon returning home from seeing the bodies on display at you was: I'm never going to be able to look at a model during a figure drawing session the same way ever again. When I see them in their poses, I am going to be mentally undressing their already-nude forms to imagine what they would look like UNDER the skin - what are their muscles doing? Their nerves? Their veins? Would they look just like the bodies I saw today, or would they have their own, distinct look? What would they look like sliced into separate sections or with their body cavities exploded to reveal their internal organs?

Right.

People who haven't seen you may very well be disturbed by that last comment (and maybe a few that have), but that is the kind of impression you made on me, Body Worlds 3. From a little over two hours wandering around your halls, reading explanations and examining your plasticized body parts, I learned more about human (and camel) anatomy than I have ever learned - or more importantly, understood - from biology texts or classes. I have read anatomy texts, even own the Anatomy Coloring Book, but I never had a real grasp of how we are put together. Now . . . I most certainly do. Far beyond the understanding that may have even been necessary. Now I can really feel the appreciation the Renaissance masters held for the human body - both outside and within.

And you were satisfying on so many levels. I just mentioned the interest you brought out in me from an artistic viewpoint, but you also appealed to my scientific leanings as well as my interest in athletics. I also got to examine a diverse array of knees in various levels of exposure to try to figure out just what, exactly I did to myself. There were exhibits for every major organ, the nervous system, the skeleton, the muscles, and - most impressive, I thought - the vascular system. There's something eerily thrilling about examining the full plasticized vascular system of a man's arm and then comparing to my own arm and the major veins that pop out when I'm exercising.

And, for the most part, you weren't disturbing at all. Yes, I realize that your displays are just an endless parade of dead bodies, but it's hard to look at it that way. I think the key to that fact is the lack of skin. Had there been more skin on the bodies, I think I would have been disturbed, as they would have more closely represented cadavers. However, as simple displays of everything BELOW skin level, they were simply beautiful and inspiring.

All, of course, except for the fetuses. The fetus collection pulled no punches. From 1 week incrementally to 45, you showed me every little step in the development of human babies in the womb - dead fetus, by tiny dead fetus, preserved in plastic. It was beautiful, in a way, and completely engrossing intellectually, but it also made me greatly reconsider my thoughts on abortion. I'm not going to say any more than that - the rest is for individuals to see and decide for themselves.

Outside your exhibits themselves, I was intrigued by how you brought out the show-off in so many of your visitors. I heard countless conversations (monologues, really) where one person was speaking - in the most condescending of tones - to their partner, lecturing them about the various functions of the body parts they were examining at the moment. Either you are a great draw for doctors and biologists (which is possible), or else seeing the underlying human body brings out the wisdom in all of us.

There were also quite a lot of small children, which I found a little surprising (considering the very graphic nature of your displays). None of them seemed to have an adverse reaction to the bodies, though, and I even heard one little kid say about the plasticized fetuses, "Look at the cute little babies." I bit my tongue and held back a response updating that reference to "cute little DEAD babies."

And on that positive note, I think I will end this particular letter. You were hardly a humorous experience, so I don't really feel the need to end this on anything but a darker note. You were truly inspiring, though, and I am really looking forward to my next figure drawing session to imagine skinless models posing before me. Some people see clothed models and imagine them naked. I just do the equivalent with naked ones . . .

Thanks, Body Worlds 3, for teaching me and changing my perspective a bit. I have a feeling we'll meet again before you leave Portland. Until then, don't change a thing.

Skin-Deep,
CVT