Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
January 20, 2025

The cast of Miloš Forman's One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest on location at Oregon State Hospital. Salem, Oregon, 1975 © Mary Ellen Mark/The Mary Ellen Mark Foundation
One year later, she returned to embark on a self-assigned project, documenting the experiences of the women in Ward 81 in collaboration with author and sociologist, Dr. Karen Folger Jacobs.
For 36 days, Mark and Jakobs lived on-site, gaining extraordinary access to patients and staff. Their resulting book, Ward 81 (published in 1978) was a nuanced and compelling record of female psychiatric treatment in the US at that time, and revealed the often porous line between sanity and mental illness for women relegated to the margins of society.
The exhibition at the Center for Photography at Woodstock (CPW) is complemented by never-before-seen prints, contact sheets and rare archive material. Most exciting are the newly discovered audio narratives that the women recorded with Jacobs, which have been integrated into a short film, Moonlight Heaven Black, made for the exhibition by the photographer’s husband, Martin Bell.
The original exhibition was curated by Gaëlle Morel and Kaitlin Booher for the Image Centre, Toronto, in collaboration with the Mary Ellen Mark Foundation, New York. It is accompanied by the publication Ward 81: Voices by Mary Ellen Mark and Karen Folger Jacobs, edited by Martin Bell, Julia Bezgin and Meredith Lue (Steidl Publishing, 2023).

The cast of Miloš Forman's One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest on location at Oregon State Hospital. Salem, Oregon, 1975 © Mary Ellen Mark/The Mary Ellen Mark Foundation

Carol T. in the Mirror, 1976 © Mary Ellen Mark, Courtesy of The Mary Ellen Mark Foundation/Howard Greenberg Gallery

Laurie in the Bathtub, 1976 © Mary Ellen Mark, Courtesy of The Mary Ellen Mark Foundation/Howard Greenberg Gallery

Mona and Beth in the Shower, 1976 © Mary Ellen Mark, Courtesy of The Mary Ellen Mark Foundation/Howard Greenberg Gallery

Mona with Michael Douglas's Picture, 1976 © Mary Ellen Mark, Courtesy of The Mary Ellen Mark Foundation/Howard Greenberg Gallery

Mona, 1976 © Mary Ellen Mark, Courtesy of The Mary Ellen Mark Foundation/Howard Greenberg Gallery