In 2007, Abigail O’Brien RHA spent a three month residency in the Oatfield Sweet Factory in Letterkenny, County Donegal, as part of a Percent for Art Scheme of Donegal County Council. O’Brien was determined that the work produced there would have a metaphorical reach far beyond the documenting of the sweet making process and for that ambition she took the Cardinal Virtue of Temperance as her guide and theme. Temperance can most simply be defined as ‘self-restraint in the face of temptation or desire’ and in these sumptuous photographs of the manufacture of confectionery’s desire the artist succeeds in moving us into the moral realm.