Scent Lending Library NEW YORK CITY

Scent Lending Library 1.0 — New York City

Olfactory Installation at Olfactory Art Keller (NOW CLOSED)
25A Henry Street, New York, NY 10002

The Scent Lending Library opened on April 12th, 2025 at Olfactory Art Keller in New York City and became a permanent installation until the gallery closed on September 20th, 2025.

Olfactory Art Keller presented the world’s first public Scent Lending Library, an installation by Donna Lipowitz that invited visitors to borrow and return smells. Lipowitz applied the idea of a circulating library collection to scent.

The Library included 100 scents in the reference collection inside a small storage closet sized room dressed to look like an on old world library.

Fifty of the scents were also LENDABLE. Just like library books, they were available to be checked out and taken home by members for further study.

The collection combined fragrance molecules, commercial perfumes, and scents created by the artist. The project reflects Lipowitz’s belief that scent is a powerful but often overlooked medium, capable of accessing memory, emotion, and place.

Lipowitz writes:
“Aged six or so, I built a small library for my books outside, in the humid, damp Australian rainforest, from sticks. I’d sit ‘inside,’ lost in faraway worlds.”
The Scent Lending Library continues this instinct, giving visitors a way to enter new or forgotten worlds through smell.

The project proposes a “volatile archive” based on impermanence, sensation, and exchange rather than ownership or completeness.

Membership was free and open to everyone. Visitors could check out up to three scents at a time during the New York installation.

The New York chapter is now complete. The Scent Lending Library 2.0 continues in Seattle at Fogue Studios and Gallery, 5519 Airport Way South, Seattle, Washington 98108, United States. Open hours Thu - Sun 12:00 pm – 05:00 pm

Images from the Scent Lending Library opening April 2025 at Olfactory Art Keller, Henry street in New York City.