'Language Oven' is part of a series celebrating Essex's association with Jiangsu Province, China. After visiting China, Davey produced six pieces relating to its temples, gardens and customs. This piece is a workbench on which there is an arrangement of objects drawn from cooking, printing and imperial architecture. Salt has historically played an important economic role within Jiangsu and Maldon in Essex. The pan represents the rendering of the salt. The salt pagoda on the bench is a model of a structure built to impress an emperor. Printing blocks carry words and Chinese characters which are used as signatures, rubber stamping the finished work. Grenville Davey lives and works in Great Yeldham, Essex and won the Turner Prize, widely regarded as one of the most important awards for visual arts, in 1992.