Tooth Shrines

A semi circle of small ceramic houses with roof tiles of teeth stems from an intriguing story of a priest in the 1960s obtaining two teeth from the relics of St Edmund retained in Toulouse, he brought them back to Bury St Edmunds but they then vanished. Mixed with the story of St Edmund’s teeth are ideas of the tooth fairy and the Grimm’s fairy tale ‘Hansel and Gretel’ with the cannibalistic witch whose house is made of gingerbread and sweets. Both the tooth fairy and Grimm’s fairy tales are relics of childhood. These small shrines are part of an on going project about aging and teeth from the tooth fairy as a child to dentures in old age. Teeth are the only human body part that cannot repair themselves. 'Tooth Shrines' are made of glazed clay & synthetic resin teeth.