Editing Plastination (section)

==Plastination exhibitions==
For the first 20 years, plastination was used to preserve small specimens for medical study. In the early 1990s, the equipment was developed to make plastinating whole body specimens possible, each specimen taking up to 1,500-man-hours to prepare.<ref>{{cite AV media |url=http://s3.amazonaws.com/leonardopodcast/TheLeonardoPodcast1.mp3 |title=TheLeonardo Podcast no. 1 |format=[[MP3]] |date=19 September 2008 |first=Ross |last=Chambless |access-date=8 May 2009}}</ref> The first exhibition of whole bodies was displayed by von Hagens in Japan in 1995.

Over the next two years, Von Hagens developed the {{lang|de|Körperwelten}} ([[Body Worlds]]) public exhibitions, showing whole bodies plastinated in lifelike poses and dissected to show various structures and systems of human anatomy. The earliest exhibitions were presented in the [[Far East]] and in Germany, and Gunther von Hagens'  exhibitions have subsequently been hosted by museums and venues in more than 50 cities worldwide, attracting more than 29 million visitors.{{Citation needed|reason=a specific page with this specific information needs to be cited, not just the main body worlds website|date=May 2009}}

Gunther von Hagens' Body Worlds exhibitions are the original, precedent-setting public anatomical exhibitions of real human bodies, and the only anatomical exhibits that use donated bodies, willed by donors to the Institute for Plastination for the express purpose of serving the Body Worlds mission to educate the public about health and anatomy. To date, more than 10,000 people have agreed to donate their bodies to Institute for Plastination.<ref name="bodyworlds1"/>

In 2004, [[Premier Exhibitions]] began their "Bodies Revealed" exhibition in [[Blackpool, England]], which ran from August through October 2004.{{Citation needed|date=May 2009}} In 2005 and 2006, the company opened their "Bodies Revealed" and "Bodies...The Exhibition" in [[Seoul]], [[Tampa]], and [[New York City]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2009}} The West Coast exhibition site opened on 22 June 2006 at the Tropicana Resort and Casino Las Vegas.{{Citation needed|date=May 2009}} {{As of|2009|06}}, [[BODIES... The Exhibition]] is showing at the [[Ambassador Theatre (Dublin)|Ambassador Theatre]] in Dublin, Ireland.{{cn<!--Unarchived bare URL removed-->|date=May 2025}} The exhibition was in Istanbul, Turkey, until the end of March 2011.

Plastination galleries are offered in several college medical schools, including the [[University of Michigan]] (which [[The Michigan Daily|Michigan Daily]] reported possessed the United States' largest such lab in 2007),<ref>{{cite news |title=The plastinator |url=https://www.michigandaily.com/uncategorized/plastinator/ |access-date=17 May 2025 |agency=The Michigan Daily |date=Feb 14, 2007}}</ref> [[Vienna University]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.meduniwien.ac.at/plastination/ |title=Plastination at the Vienna University |publisher=Vienna University |access-date=18 March 2010}}</ref> and the JSS Medical Collegem<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.jssuni.edu.in/JSSWeb/WebShowFromDB.aspx?MODE=SSMD&PID=10002&CID=4&DID=8&MID=0&SMID=10402|title=Jagadguru Sri Shivarathreeshwara University|website=www.jssuni.edu.in}}</ref>{{nonspecific|date=May 2025}} Gunther von Hagens maintains a permanent exhibition of plastinates and plastination at the Plastinarium in [[Guben]], Germany.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.plastinarium.de/en/plastinarium_e/the_plastinarium_what_is_it.html|title=The Plastinarium – What is it?|publisher=Gubener Plastinate GmbH|website=www.plastinarium.de|access-date=17 August 2018}}</ref>