By Bill Diodato, Golden Section Publishers LLC, $49.99, 60 pages
1975’s movie; One Flew over the Cockoo’s Nest comes to life again in this hauntingly significant photography book, Care of Ward 81. Women of Ward 81 in Oregon’s own Oregon State Hospital suffered a multitude of mental disturbances, shoved aside from societies’ everyday lives…forgotten and dismissed. Poetically silent, barren walls scream at you like a horrifying nightmare of a clown doll in the corner of the room. The disturbingly bare pictures portrayed in Bill Diodato’s incredible work tell a tale of many and yet of each one, some locked up alone and others to roam the now-desolate halls. From the small, dingy rooms to the poignant upper-room view of the center yard down below; the pictures invoke strong emotions of suffering, shame, loneliness, and pain. No one really knows if this facility did harm or good. No longer a functioning facility, Oregon State Hospital’s memory lingers on in this work. The story it tells is a personal one; like art, only the viewer can experience. Beautifully bound and exquisitely-captured details Care of Ward 81 is a must-have, not only for the incredible reality but the artwork of the pastel coloring and the story it tells.