The Collector's Reliquary, 2025, mixed media, 17 x 9 x 5 in. / 43.18 x 22.86 x 12.7 cm.

The Collector's Reliquary, Katherine Engen, 2025, mixed media, 17 x 9 x 5 in. / 43.18 x 22.86 x 12.7 cm.

The Collector’s Reliquary is both altar and archive, housing a series of handmade books, each one a repository of marks and memory. Encased within a bamboo shrine and flanked by a branch bearing feathers, the cabinet is crowned by a bone—part talisman, part guardian, part memento mori.