I expected the blood.
I steeled myself for the guts.
What I could not prepare for, when heading over to see the much-buzzed “Body Worlds 2” exhibit at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, was the flood of memories that hit me the moment I stepped across the threshold.
“Body Worlds” is famous, and occasionally infamous, for viscera, festering tumors, dangling penises and opened brain pans. Yes, the lower intestines of these plasticized cadavers look ready to slither across the floor. The black lung is a coal miner’s nightmare. And a baby sheep rendered only by its scarlet arteries gives new meaning to “the blood of the lamb.”
But the most surprising thing about “Body Worlds,” and the reason everyone should go and bring kids if they have them, is the sweet feeling of humanity radiating from every stark bit of cadaver.
If body parts are facts, then the exhibit’s true artistry is leaving room for the soul that is more than the sum of all parts.
I walked in holding my 22-month-old son, and the first thing we saw together was a baby’s skull. Small as a tangerine, thin and translucent as the broken pigeon’s egg I swept off my porch the same morning, the miniature skull begged me to relive every moment I had cupped the back of my children’s heads.
My wife and I have watched three babies asleep between us on the bed, their rapid pulse rising through the infantile gaps in their skulls like lava bubbling from a vent in the ocean bed. How we fretted at shepherding those delicate heads through the hazards of childhood. Now here I was, holding my youngest and looking at the most fragile part of another baby.
In the next case was a display of leg bones. One had been reconstructed after an accident, and the stark steel pin holding together the tibia suddenly made me recall two friends who shattered legs while ski jumping. I had new appreciation for their suffering, and their recovery.
Then a set of pelvic bones. Embedded deep inside one was an artificial hip socket; upon my finding it, the room disappeared. All I could see was my grandma Naomi wobbling bravely down the hallway of her Michigan home, ignoring her hip pains as she searched for the perfect book for her grandchildren.
At a case filled with skulls opened to reveal preserved brains, the most brightly colored thinking muscle belonged to the child’s model. My son pointed at it, demanding over and over to know, “What is that? What is that?” Asked and answered, your honor – though the brain in the case was long dead, I could see my son’s world expanding by the second.
Models of the natal placentas transported me back to three births; in the delivery room, the placentas were nearly as fascinating to me as our babies. Their iron-rich shades of red spoke mysteries of maternal instinct and nature’s marvels.
Nearby was a less mystical but no less evocative cross-section: A cutaway of the cramped labyrinth of the naso-oral cavity summoned memories of countless sinus infections among our children, and the magic bottles of pink medicine that made them go away.
Not all reminiscence provoked by “Body Worlds” is so maudlin. Other mementos were as simple as the “Soccer Player” and appreciating all the muscles that must aim for a punt when my daughter plays goalie. A pair of spleens resting like doorstops in a glass case had me thinking of Peter Forsberg and the 2001 Stanley Cup. Warm feelings all, and certainly not induced by nausea.
I saw no children passing out or throwing up during my recent visit to “Body Worlds.” To the contrary, I saw dozens of rapt faces listening carefully as excited parents pointed out organs or bones or ligaments. Because the body is so elemental, each age takes in the information at a level that makes sense.
The drop-dead coolest part of the exhibit is the blood vessel renderings of arms and legs and faces. My son took one look and said, “Fish!,” and of course he was right: The red cloud of capillaries from a human head looked like nothing so much as a beautiful jellyfish dancing in a foreign sea.
At the “X-lady,” an adult woman whose chest and shoulder muscles are opened up to show the bone structure, my son first said, “Crab!” and then, “Butterfly!” Right both times. When scientists are still puzzling out the exact progression of evolution, why shouldn’t a toddler make his own guess at what creatures we resemble?
The comment books at the end of “Body Worlds” are a tribute to the open-mindedness and enthusiasm of nearly every one of those visitors. The scribbled remarks speak equally of the wonders of science and the grace of an unseen god.
Again, either way, right both times: It takes an exhibit showing exactly what we are made of to prove beyond any doubt that there is far more to all of us than just this.
Staff writer Michael Booth can be reached at 303-820-1686 or mbooth@denverpost.com.
Body Worlds 2
The exhibit has been enthusiastically received in Denver. Here’s a look at some exhibit details:
Attendance: By this weekend, about 145,000 people were expected to have seen the exhibit since it opened March 10. Denver is the only market in North America to attract more than 100,000 visitors in the first month after opening. Total attendance by the July 23 closing date is expected to top 400,000.
Tickets: $14-$20 and include general admission to the museum.
Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. Some special evening hours will be scheduled.
Information: Call 303-322-7009 or go to dmns.org.
