What are we made of, where are we headed and why are we here? Those are the questions that greet visitors as they enter REAL BODIES at Bally’s, the anatomical exhibit that unravels the mystery of human life through techniques of dissection and mummification. Twenty human forms that once breathed and bled have been preserved to demonstrate the various systems that enable life and motion, from skeletal and circulatory systems to muscular movement, and healing and digestive processes.
The journey starts innocuously enough with a coffin and a curious cabinet full of skulls, teeth and small hand bones, progressing to a body sliced in half, another with its skeleton removed from its skin and positioned so both forms look like they’re dancing. Walls are lined with quotes from creatives such as Leonard Cohen and Yoko Ono, and factoids that enlighten (There is enough carbon in the body to make 9,000 pencils, and the volume of air that lungs inhale daily “can fill approximately seven hot air balloons.”)
The first main large area is dedicated to respiration and circulation (“the average speed of a sneeze is about 100 miles per hour”), where the first dissected body, poised to throw with its left arm, is found. Next comes a specimen divided neatly down the median-sagittal line, providing a view into the viscera, head and neck regions. Several hearts are kept under glass to show plasma-pumping chambers and blood vessels. Skeletal and nervous systems get their due as well before guests encounter a wall of bones modeled after ossuaries like the catacombs of Paris.
Photo by: Christopher DeVargas
The Beginnings gallery contains several displays of fetuses in various stages of early development. A sign informs patrons the fetuses were terminated naturally and the room can be bypassed for the Healing gallery, where a skeleton holding a discus demonstrates how bones mend. A Vitruvian woman, in homage to Da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man,” “provides an insightful view into the layered nature of the body’s composition” as well as the climax of the journey.
The process of mummification goes back thousands of years, but the technique employed on the REAL BODIES specimens is a decades-old process called plastination. Bodily tissues are preserved by replacing all the water and fat in them with a polymer. The bodies can be positioned in life-like poses and are nontoxic as well as odorless. They are provided by Dalian Medical University in China, which states the bodies are obtained from Chinese medical universities that in turn receive unclaimed cadavers from city morgues.
This hasn’t stopped protests in countries like Australia and the U.K. in response to speculation on the origin of the specimens, but in Bally’s guests walk through the exhibit in rapt absorption. There is much information to intake and process, whether the viewer is a future medical student or a Vegas visitor happening upon an unexpected experience. For instance, did you know the saliva you produce over a lifetime can fill two swimming pools?
Bally’s, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. daily, last admission at 8 p.m., $29.95, $18 children 3-12, $24.95 locals, military, seniors and students plus fee. 702.777.2782
