Thomas Hibbs from The New Atlantis: "The exhibit includes an array of complete corpses, hundreds of organs and partial specimens, and a series of preserved embryos, kept intact through the plastination process von Hagens inventedr...enables bodies to be kept intact and upright and thus serves the end of displaying..."
I went to this on it's last day here in Portland. Many bodies were in all sorts of poses. I went with three other people. Two of our group were uncomfortable and uneasy and quit the display early. When I ask them they really can just say "It was gross." I never really wanted to go, not knowing why I felt uneasy about the whole thing. I think Thomas Hibbs is onto something here when he says:"Body Worlds is in certain unhappy respects quite well suited to our culture, a culture currently awash in morbid fascination with vivisected bodies...The problem is one of desensitization to violence in general and to the violation of the human body in particular..."
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