'Bodies Revealed' exhibit lands in Gallia County
GALLIPOLIS — Delicate, intricate and brightly colored, the specimen seemed more sculpted than preserved. Jessica Coleman had no idea that the human respiratory system — specifically, a bronchial tree and its spidery vessels — could be a thing of beauty.
"It almost looks like an art piece," the 17-year-old said.
Coleman and her classmates from the nearby University of Rio Grande and Rio Grande Community College generally rely on textbooks and lectures for their introduction to anatomy. But from now through Dec. 31, students and families and the general public, including visitors to this Appalachian community, have rare access to the real deal.
The Bossard Memorial Library is hosting "Bodies Revealed," an exhibition featuring whole and partial bodies and organs treated with a plastic silicone polymer to retain their startlingly natural appearance. The popular displays have been viewed by millions worldwide, yet never before at a community library, said Bossard director Debbie Saunders.
And, unlike other venues, the library is not charging an admission fee.
"Here, we just believe in the educational value of it," Saunders said. "We felt the return on investment would be great in terms of opportunities for people in southeastern Ohio, and into West Virginia and the surrounding area."
Road trips to metro areas and museums are out of reach for many in Gallia County, and schools in the region often struggle to afford field trips. The Bossard has a long and proud history of aiming to make up some of the difference, said Robbie Jenkins, president of the Gallia County District Library Board of Trustees.
Library officials also have brought in animals from the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, sharks from the Newport Aquarium and a local version of Antiques Roadshow.
"We don't have to be followers," Jenkins said. "Hopefully there will be people who say, 'You won't believe what they have in Gallipolis.'"
The bodies exhibit just opened this week in the library's new Riverside Room and already has more than 4,200 reservations.
If the experience inspires even a few young people "to be a nurse or a doctor, a medical assistant, an artist — the expense is worth it," said Jenkins, a local businessman and fourth-generation library board member.
The library, which has tax-levy support, expects to spend about $225,000 on the three-month exhibit, including a $95,000 licensing fee, marketing and set-up costs.
Saunders said the board carefully weighed previous controversies surrounding Premier Exhibitions, whose "BODIES...the Exhibition," displays human remains that could include the unclaimed bodies of incarcerated or executed Chinese prisoners. That exhibit came to Columbus several years ago.
"We were convinced that was not true, although we had to provide a disclaimer to that affect," said Roy Glover, chief medical director for the bodies exhibits. "None of us had gone to China to personally retrieve the bodies ourselves."
The bodies and specimens in "Bodies Revealed" also come from China, Glover said, but none were unclaimed and all were supplied by laboratories that have certified the deaths were natural and donated by family members.
Premier doesn't provide the donation forms, Saunders said, but offers other origin and inspection information as part of the exhibit contract. "It was definitely something we had to consider in making the decision," she said. "It's a very valid point of discussion."
Dr. Joshua Bryant, a resident at Holzer Medical Center, first saw a Premier bodies exhibit in his hometown of Pittsburgh. This week, he was on hand at Bossard to answer questions and help enrich the experience for visitors who, for the first and maybe only time in their lives, could peer inside skulls and chest cavities, study a stretching muscle or marvel at a stringy, full-body-length display of blood vessels (humans have about 100,000 miles of them).
"It's still such a humbling experience," Bryant said. "They're us. They are our bodies."
Supporters say the exhibits also offer powerful evidence of the damage done by smoking, alcohol abuse, cancer and heart disease, rates of which are high in Ohio's Appalachian counties.
"It highlights unhealthy lifestyles," Saunders said.
Many of the students touring the exhibit this week lingered at the display that positions a smoker's dark, scarred lung alongside that of a person who apparently didn't use tobacco. Some spoke of relatives whose habit left them tethered to oxygen tanks.
Tracy Herdman, a freshman at Rio Grande studying to be a nurse, was so taken with the exhibit that she wants to return with her family. The 18-year-old said she's never been one to wince at what lies below the skin.
"My aunt cut her hand one time, and you could see pretty far inside," Herdman said. "I took pictures."
Coleman, a Meigs County high-school senior who is getting early college credit through Rio Grande, had no trouble filling her notebook. "It's all very interesting," she said, staring into a case of perfectly preserved brains.
"Someone's whole life is right there," Coleman said. "Everything they've ever seen, done, thought."
She'd read about the central nervous system before, of course. But the book didn't do it justice.
For information about the exhibit or to reserve a visit, go to bossardlibrary.org or call 740-446-7323
For information about the exhibit or to reserve a visit, go to bossardlibrary.org or call 740-446-7323