Interrogating interiors. Denise Amy Baxter and Meredith Martin (eds), Architectural space in eighteenth-century Europe: Constructing identities and interiors, Ashgate, 2010

This essay reviews Architectural Space in Eighteenth-Century Europe: Constructing Identities and Interiors, edited by Denise Amy Baxter and Meredith Martin. Detailed accounts of the essays in the collection provide the basis for a broader exploration of some of the interpretative opportunities and challenges posed by the study of interiors. The review raises questions about the role of intentionality in decorative self-fashioning, the nature of sensory experience in historical interiors, and the scholarly conventions that may limit efforts to re-imagine the past.