Artist creates the world's first scent-lending library

"It's kind of crazy, but I just get ideas all the time. I genuinely thought: wouldn't it be cool if you could borrow scents like books? And would that work? Would people do it? Would they just think it was stupid? So far, no one seems to think it is stupid."

"What is in the library? Chanel No. 5, but also Bermuda Triangle. Bounce brand 'Outdoor Fresh' dryer sheets. Eau Sauvage, created in 1966 by the perfumer Edmond Roudnitska as a masculine scent for Dior. Essential oils like frankincense and eucalyptus. The smell of space developed in 2008 by the chemist Steve Pearce for NASA."

"Some items are concept scents that Lipowitz herself created, like the aforementioned Bermuda Triangle and It'll Be OK, blended in 2020 using aromas often thought to be uplifting. Her Green Cicada was created for Olfactory Art Keller's 2022 Portraits in Scent show and is meant as a self-portrait of the artist, age five, barefoot in the Australian rainforest."

Donna Lipowitz, a multisensory artist, conceived the Scent Lending Library while in the forest near her home, inspired by the idea of borrowing scents like books. The library debuted in April 2025 at the Olfactory Art Keller in New York's Chinatown, attracting significant crowds despite rainy weather. The collection expanded to Seattle's Fogue Gallery in November 2025 and proved so popular it secured a permanent upstairs installation in April. The library contains diverse scents including luxury fragrances like Chanel No. 5 and Eau Sauvage, everyday items like dryer sheets and Cheerios, NASA-developed space scent, and Lipowitz's original concept scents such as Bermuda Triangle and Green Cicada, a self-portrait created when she was five years old in the Australian rainforest.

Read at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events