The Body Image exhibition in Burnie challenges its audience with the marriage of beautiful visual art and diseased human organs in glass jars.

The show, which aroused much interest when launched in Sydney last September, blurs the lines between art and medical science.

CT scans are used in the exhibition as a basis for visual art that is abstract yet utterly educational at the same time.

"Those works and the many video animation works take the viewer on a journey through the human body. You can pretty much travel through the arteries," University of Tasmania's Joanna Gair said.

"The whole premise for the exhibition was really around the future of providing patients with key pieces of information.

"Instead of a doctor holding an MRI saying 'sir, madam, this is what it looks like', they might be able to show you an animation."

For the Tasmanian showing of Body Image, patients — or punters — are also being shown exactly what diseased human organs look like.

Joanna Gair, exhibitions co-ordinator at the Cradle coast Campus of the University of Tasmania. ( ABC Northern Tasmania: Rick Eaves )

Dr Sorell Standish-White is the curator of the RA Rodda Museum of Pathology in Hobart and the nine samples she has unveiled as part of the show in Burnie are rarely seen, even in Hobart.

"This is the first time these specimens have actually left Hobart ... they're on a road trip," Dr Standish-White said, amused at the thought of a brain, lung, aorta and a liver, making their way along the Midlands Highway.

The Museum of Pathology was established in 1965 and specialises in diseased and traumatised organs, with samples mostly collected through autopsies and surgical specimens from the years soon after it was established.

"Unfortunately it's a museum of pathology, so we have one healthy lung and one healthy ovary — but that's it for healthy," Dr Standish-White said.

The RA Rodda Museum samples, preserved in jars, are screened off from the rest of the exhibition so that more squeamish art lovers can choose not to look.

A groundbreaking partnership

According to Ms Gair, the diverse arts and educational experience on offer makes the Body Image show perfect for school groups and others who can also experience the beachfront boardwalk linking the Makers Workshop venue with the Burnie Regional Art Gallery.

Ms Gair, who is the exhibitions co-ordinator for the Cradle Coast campus, said getting the show to Burnie was a collaborative effort between the Burnie Regional Arts Gallery and the University of Tasmania, and is the first show in the city to be shared between those venues.

While it is a groundbreaking partnership, Ms Gair credits a volunteer on the Makers Workshop visitor information counter, above all others, for getting the show to Burnie.

Burnie's Makers workshop, venue for the exhibition Body Image. ( ABC Northern Tasmania: Rick Eaves )

"It was the most beautiful story; Tony Campbell and his wife were in Sydney and they saw this show and he thought, 'you know what, this would be a great show for Burnie, we might learn something from this'," Ms Gair said.

"He brought back the idea and Geoff Dobson at the Burnie Regional Art Gallery and myself were really excited by it and together we were able to get the exhibition here."

The original Body Image exhibition was curated by doctor and artist Dr John McGee, in collaboration with University of NSW Galleries director Felicity Fenner.

Doctor McGhee is one of a number of artists who are also medical professionals whose work is represented in the show.

Dr Sorell Standish-White said many people in Hobart do not even know about the RA Rodda Museum of Pathology. ( ABC Northern Tasmania: Rick Eaves )

There is also an audio-visual installation by the legendary Icelandic musician and artist Bjork.

"Bjork, in about 2012, did a performance piece where she asked CGI and MRI imaging experts to go inside her own body and create an animated version of her internal workings," Ms Gair said.

"It's exciting to see her work here in Burnie."

The pathology samples from the RA Rodda Museum are very fragile and considered quite precious by the medical fraternity.

"We wrapped them very carefully and we're excited that people on the north-west coast will get to see something that many people in Hobart don't ever see," Dr Standish-White said.

"Most don't even know that the museum exists."

The display of RA Rodda Museum samples is at the Makers Workshop but that element of the exhibition will conclude on June 3.

Body Image will continue across the two venues — the Burnie Regional Art Gallery and the Makers Workshop — until July 12.