Bjørn Berge

Smell
The tale of a fading sense

This book is a tribute to the free sense of smell in all its beauty and disgust.
It opens with an introduction to the significance of the sense and the adventurous diversity of smells, continuing as a historical journey through the scents of the first ancient cities, medieval plague epidemics, and the industrial revolution up to the present day. In total, it explores twenty different odors, from the smell of blood to the fragrance of a flower meadow, flatulence, money, and garlic.
The sense of smell is associated with the dark, the erotic, the animalistic – the very opposite of modernity and progress. We now live in an almost odorless world where soon, everything will be visual – and only that.

All illustrated with beautiful watercolors by visual artist Anette Rosenberg.