During the Vancouver exhibition of Dead Animals, I sat in the art gallery every day and talked to everyone who saw the show.

During one conversation, a visitor told me that he owned a human hand in a jar filled with embalming fluid. He said that he had legally inherited the preserved hand from his grandfather (who had been a surgeon).

When I heard this, I asked him, “Do you want to sell it?”

“No way!” he said. “It’s a family heirloom.”

Nonetheless, I began to wonder if other people had legally preserved human body parts in their homes.