Colossal curates a collection of outsider art (see previously here, here and here) created by a patient of State Lunatic Asylum, Number 3 of Nevada, Missouri, a series of over two hundred crayon and coloured pencil illustrations from James Edward Deeds, Jr named as a misspelled version of electric or eclectic.
Committed in 1936 to the care-home and working farm for the rest of his life, Deeds was diagnosed with schizophrenia and described as “boisterous and delusion,” and his sketches prise open a glimpse into how mental health was once handled—with two thousand capacity hospital closing in 1950.