The Odour of Tilchestune

Artist book, Erewash Museum, Ilkeston – artist residency, 2017

The Odour of Tilchestune was developed during an artist residency at Erewash Museum, exploring the industrial heritage and lived histories of Ilkeston. The title references D. H. Lawrence’s Odour of Chrysanthemums and the historic name Tilchestune for the town, connecting literary memory, local identity and industrial history.

Arriving with expectations shaped by Ilkeston’s coal and steel industries, the residency became an exploration of what makes a place: not only its buildings, industries and materials, but the people, skills, relationships and memories that continue to shape it.

Constructed from handmade paper, coal, lace and a steel spine, the artist book brings together materials associated with labour, domestic life and care. These elements reflect the intertwined histories of industrial production and everyday experience, acknowledging the physical and emotional traces left by work and community.

The book functions as both archive and intimate object, using material, touch and fragility as ways of engaging with place. Through local narratives and material histories, The Odour of Tilchestune explores how landscapes are held in memory through the lives of the people who inhabit them.