For Coprophagiology*, Anna Maltz and Haden Nicholl engaged in a collaborative experiment, turning MISSION17 into an insane asylum inhabited by the artistsas patients.

The controlled environment of the gallery space served as a double for the controlled environment of the mental institution. Maltz and Nicholl resided there, pursuing activities throughout the show’s run that called attention to connections between art and madness.

Anna Malz and Haden Nichols, Coprophagiology, installation view

Their beds were outfitted with suicide blankets customized by the patient artists. Craft materials were available for art therapy: safety scissors only of course. Therapeutic trauma dolls were on hand, for which Maltz and Nicholl made clothes. And videos played continuously to help them while away the time.

The patient artists also conducted psychological experiments—on each other.

The question is: did the gallery asylum make the patient artists more or less crazy?

Anna Malz and Haden Nichols, Coprophagiology, installation view

* The study of eating one’s own feces, one of the most telling symptoms of psychosis in humans.