PJ Harvey collection to go on display at Dorchester Library and Learning Centre

PJ Harvey's Orlam on display in Dorset Museum

PJ Harvey's Orlam previously display in Dorset Museum, Dorchester. [Image Credit: Mark North]

Visitors to Dorchester Library and Learning Centre will have the opportunity to explore the creative process behind PJ Harvey’s acclaimed verse novel Orlam when a selection of material from the Dorset-born artist’s collection goes on public display this autumn.

The display, running from 2 September to 12 October 2026, brings together a series of facsimiles loaned by Dorset Museum & Art Gallery, giving audiences a closer look at the development of a work that places Dorset’s dialect, folklore, landscape and literary heritage at the heart of a distinctly contemporary story.

Among the items on display will be an inscribed copy of Orlam, typescript proofs showing Harvey’s handwritten edits, and a signed photograph of the artist wearing a brooch made from traditional Dorset buttons.

Harvey gifted the collection to Dorset Museum & Art Gallery in 2022. The loan to Dorchester Library and Learning Centre will make the material accessible to a wider audience and highlights the museum’s commitment to sharing Dorset’s cultural heritage beyond its own galleries.

Harvey’s research was strongly influenced by the work of 19th-century Dorset poet William Barnes, whose Glossary of the Dorset Dialect served as her principal reference while writing Orlam. The connection places Harvey’s work within a long-established Dorset literary tradition while demonstrating how the county’s language can be reimagined for a modern audience.

The influence of Dorset’s literary landscape extends beyond Barnes. Harvey has also spoken of her lifelong connection with Thomas Hardy, whose writing, like Barnes’s, has helped shape her understanding of the county.

While Orlam draws deeply on Dorset’s past, its vision is far from nostalgic. Harvey’s fictionalised landscape is darker and more distorted, combining the recognisable features of rural Dorset with unsettling imagery, folklore and surreal experiences. Her musical background is also evident in the work’s rhythm, lyricism and distinctive use of language.

The Dorset dialect poem is presented alongside standard English translations on facing pages, written by Harvey’s friend, mentor and editor, Scottish poet Don Paterson.

Harvey said, “I am indebted to Thomas Hardy and William Barnes, whose work has resonated with me my whole life.

“Researching Dorset folklore and history while writing Orlam enriched my life and deepened my appreciation of this magical part of the world.

“I am grateful to be part of the county’s writing tradition, and delighted that the proofs and photograph will be on display at Dorchester Library where others can connect with that same tradition.”

The display offers visitors not only an insight into one of Dorset’s most internationally recognised contemporary artists, but also an opportunity to consider how language, place and heritage can inspire new forms of creative expression.