Desmet uses collage and print to depict the built environment. She is engaged with the evolution of the urban landscape and its testimony to the aspirations and experiences of humanity.
Her abiding subjects are Italy, London and the Babel Tower. She uses the traditional printmaking techniques of wood engraving and lino-cutting but draws on a variety of materials to create distinctive layered collages. Her work ranges from small scale, detailed examinations to sweeping, often fantastical, panoramas viewed from a bird's eye perspective.
Desmet has had over 40 solo shows including five major museum exhibitions in the UK and overseas and her work is widely represented in national and international public and private collections. She is currently curating a major exhibition, opening next spring at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, which will celebrate the last 100 years of wood engraved prints. Desmet was elected as a Royal Academician in 2011.