A series of 19 photographs from psychiatric hospitals/institutions in the South of Norway. The project is presented in the “logic” of the archive, in which the differences among the houses can be read as morphological differences or family resemblances. In many ways, the project focuses on the similarity between these houses and other public buildings such as schools, hospitals, and retirement homes. The title, however, changes our attitude towards them, and gives them a certain atmosphere. The title is also characteristic of the popular imagery of the houses and their history. These are histories based in the local environment, but many of them have also been national media events.

Doris Frohnapfel, curator for Junge norwegische Fotografi, 6. Internatinale Fototage Herten, 2001 writes about the work:

Christine Hansen has looked into the history of the madhouses in Norway. The documentation of the buildings, when it comes to types, could not have been more extensive – health resort, -castle, -anonymous modern, -prison. They are all connected to the same use – storage of the “mad ones”. This use is a contrast to the buildings, which we could ascribe to other histories if we didn’t know their content.