Toledo’s Imagination Station, a local gem of scientific exploration, has recently installed a new exhibit, Body Worlds RX, set to open Friday, May 11. We sneaked inside for a peak. Not sure the sense of sight and the eye will ever be the same… can’t peak without them.
Imagination Station has teamed with ProMedica and the University of Toledo to bring the body to life. Visitors are encouraged, per a catch-phrase, to “take a look inside”. Interactivity with a virtual “body mirror” is also encouraged.
One might find a sea of human body parts – skeletal, nervous, muscular, endocrine systems, etc. – to be disconcerting, specifically as they are real tissue. Preserved by a special practice which is, in layman’s terms, dehydration, the tissue is still there. For the sake of understanding how “there” the tissue actually is, tests could technically be performed on it. It is not plastic. It is real.
Unsettling as it may seem, though, the poetic curiosity of what is naturally hidden emerges, and with the tasteful approach to preservation, the “grotesque” becomes… not. Unless, of course, you’re taking in the smoker’s lung or a diabetic liver (no judgment, just inspiration).
It is clear the show is intended to motivate and embolden toward self-care, and it is quite effective. One of the doctors responsible for preparing the specimens spoke for a short time before we previewed. “My wish is to inspire not only on a physiological level, but philosophical and emotional, as well. Your body is the only true place you have to live.” Body Worlds RX is a visual and cerebral success.
Members |Â $7
Groups (15 or more participants) | $7
Non-members | $9
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 10am–5pm | Sunday, Noon–5pm Monday | CLOSED
1 Discovery Way, Toledo | 419-244-2674 imaginationstationtoledo.org
