The world’s most visited travelling attraction, Body Worlds — which creatively displays preserved human bodies — is back in Vancouver today, but be forewarned, it’s not for the queasy.
Body Worlds has been touring North America, Asia and Europe since its first display in Tokyo in 1995, and opens at the Telus World of Science today for a special exhibit on the brain.
There are more than 200 human specimens including full figures posed in the midst of action, as well as cross-sections and organs.
Angelina Whalley, creative designer of Body Worlds and wife of its creator, Gunther von Hagens, said the 30 million people who have seen the exhibit are lured by a mixture of curiosity and a natural interest in anatomy.
“People have a very profound encounter with their inner self (at the exhibit), which makes them view their body in a completely different way,” she said yesterday.
Whalley, a former surgeon, said staff have kept a tally of responses from visitors and found that nine per cent vow to stop smoking, 33 per cent say they’re inspired to eat better and 25 per cent to exercise more.
“This (exhibit) reminds us how beautiful and fragile our bodies are … That our body is not just a divine gift, but it’s a product of our lifestyles.”
