For the next four months, more than 200 human specimens, many in all their anatomical glory, will be on display in the spaces where Salt Lakers used to browse books and magazines. The world-famous show offers a singular look at how muscles attach to bone, how blood moves through a matrix of vessels and how poor lifestyle choices turn pink lung tissue into something resembling burnt charcoal.
The exhibit is rooted in the Renaissance tradition of exploring human anatomy through the arts, as well as through science, said Angelina Whalley, a trained physician who serves as the show's creative director.
Whalley's husband, the German anatomist Gunther von Hagens, invented the "plastination" process of preserving and posing corpses in the mid-1970s while studying at University of Heidelberg. Von Hagens has since used donated bodies to create the world's most successful traveling exhibit, logging attendance of more than 25 million people in 45 cities around the world.
"We both wish to share the body's interior in all its beauty and intricate design to all who wish to see it," Whalley said at a press preview Thursday. "Body Worlds has allowed me to do preventive medicine that shows how intricate and beautiful the human body is, and at the same time, how vulnerable and fragile we are."
Body Worlds exhibits tour in four versions, scoring a big hit wherever it stops. The Leonardo, a Salt Lake City organization that aspires to convert the former library building into a major science and cultural center, has captured Body Worlds 3, which shines a spotlight on the human heart and blood circulatory system.
To acquire cadavers, von Hagens works with living donors currently the volunteer list numbers 8,700 people of all ages who agree to donate their bodies for plastination once they die. The average age of a Body Worlds figure was 54 years old at the time of his or her death.
A prenatal exhibit includes18 embryos and fetuses, six of which range in age from 14 weeks to 25 weeks, and appear fully formed. The prenatal specimens were donated by established museums that were getting rid of aging anatomical collections. "These are specimens that had been sitting in alcohol for as long as 80 years," Whalley said.
Von Hagens' high-tech morticians first embalm the bodies to halt decay, then bathe them in acetone, a solvent that removes water and fats. This process extracts the food source for the bacteria responsible for decomposition.
With the help of a vacuum, the acetone is drawn out of the tissues and replaced with rubber silicone and other polymers, which penetrate every cell. Then the figures are positioned and hardened into place. The entire process requires about a year, involving some 1,500 hours of work on each figure.
Salt Lake organizers expect a few hundred thousand visitors will see Body Worlds, bringing up to 2,000 people to Library Square daily and elevating The Leonardo's profile at a time when it needs to galvanize public support for its taxpayer-funded plans.
"The Leonardo's mission is to fuse culture, science and technology in experiences that inspire human potential for creativity and innovation," said Peter Giles, the museum's executive director. "Body Worlds helps us to see what's right around us and what's inside of our selves. That's the very role of genius."
So far, the local response to the exhibit has been gratifying. Organizers have trained 300 volunteers for Body Worlds, signed up another 100, while more people are calling to volunteer every day, said Leonardo spokeswoman Lisa Davis.
"If people are interested [in seeing Body Worlds], they should get tickets on the front end because it sells out near the end of the engagement," Davis said. "That's what happens in other markets. They end up staying open 24 hours a day to accommodate the demand."
Body Worlds takes up the ground and second floors of the old library building, which The Leonardo hopes to renovate after the exhibit's January departure in the initial $11 million phase to adapt the 1961 city-owned facility. Before the arrival of Body Worlds materials, the building had been empty since 2003, when the library moved into its new home across Library Square.
"The thing that's so fabulous about the library is that it's so open," Davis said recently, as crews were tacking black draperies on the ceilings and walls, assembling lighting scaffolds and erecting temporary walls. "The set-up guys were so excited because it was like having a blank canvas to work with."
During the anatomy exhibit, The Leonardo will operate a cafe and gift shop, as well as art installations and spaces dubbed the LeoLounge where visitors are invited to decompress and talk about Body Worlds' powerful displays and the LeoZone, where they can learn about the organization's future programming.
bmaffly@sltrib.com
