Care of WARD 81

"c/o Ward 81" is the first of a series of two monographs by Bill Diodato. Located in Salem The Oregon State Insane Asylum as it was then known and which was also the location for the classic film "One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest" had a ward set up at the end of the 19th Century to help women with psychiatric needs and provide them with isolation: Ward 81.During 2005, the entire site was being redeveloped… the Oregon State Legislature authorized Bill Diodato to photograph and thus document the cremated remains of some of 3,500 deceased patients of the "Asylum" which, in one final act of inhumanity, had been exhumed.During this very moving project Warden Marvin Fickle also granted Bill access to the infamous closed-off Ward 81. Knowing that he would be the last person to document the ward, Bill felt a sense of responsibility to remember the women who inhabited this extraordinary place. The result is "c/o Ward 81".