Jude, I didn't mean to imply that this exhibiton carried any ethical taint; I have no idea about it in fact. The newspaper article that I read (glancingly, while I was supposed to be working) mentioned that there was a black market for bodies in rural China and Southeast Asia, and a market for them in medical schools and exhibitions of this type. Because I was skimming the article, I didn't retain a lot of detail. It was a news to me, though, and was sensational as an ethical issue - and that more because of the "provenance" question than the mummification itself.   

I have seen a book, I believe by the German press Taschen, of photos of bodies prepared in this fashion; it's ike a state-of-the-art anatomical catalog. Even at the distace of a photo in a book, the images are fascinating and disturbing.

It made me reflect on identity, and how we can project an identity onto - what - a rendering of tissue and bone? And yet to look at a face, and see a trace of "expression" was uncanny, as the spirit was gone from the flesh. But this had been a person.

Thanks for an interesting post, and your own thoughtful comments.