‘Dirt’ explored the fascinating world of filth – one of our very last taboos.
![Photograph of the entrance to the exhibition, Dirt: The filthy reality of everyday life, with visitors standing outside.](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2Fe48864ad-9da2-4c91-b7c9-69bcf0196786_c0069447.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&rect=&w=1200&h=)
Brains: The Mind as Matter exhibition, Benjamin Gilbert. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Bringing together some 200 artefacts spanning visual art, photography, cultural ephemera, scientific artefacts, film and literature, the exhibition uncovered a rich history of disgust and delight in the grimy truths and dirty secrets of our past. Visitors explored six very different locations to reveal attitudes towards dirt and cleanliness: a home in 17th-century Delft in Holland, a street in Victorian London, a hospital in Glasgow in the 1860s, a museum in Dresden in the early 20th century, a community in present-day New Delhi and a New York landfill site in 2030.