Voices from the Wall photo exhibit opening

CAMH patients from the past speak to us today

The remains of the historic wall that surrounds CAMH’s Queen Street site tell many stories through the inscriptions found on the bricks.

Photographer Tom Lackey’s lens captured the words and images inscribed by former clients and patients who once lived within the brick walls of the more than 150-year-old site.

Over a three-year period Tom painstakingly documented the bricks on film, photographing every single one in the wall. A selection of his photos, titled Voices from the Wall, is exhibited at the Lennox Gallery, October 25-28.

"Mind Fatigue" etched into a brick in CAMH's heritage wall

“It began with just ‘Why don’t you take a picture of our wall?’ But as I began to look and see, I opened up a book. It was just like a tapestry of inscriptions, some completely enigmatic,” Tom told the National Post.

Built by patients at what was then known as the Provincial Lunatic Asylum beginning in 1860, the wall was originally 1500 metres long and enclosed the 20-hectare campus. At that time, patient labour was referred to as ‘work therapy’ or ‘moral therapy’. However, over time, work as therapy became unpaid labour intended to save money for the provincial government of the day.

Today the remaining walls are historical monuments to all of the psychiatric patients who lived, worked and died on the grounds since 1850. In tribute, the walls are being restored as the Queen Street site redevelopment moves forward and transforms CAMH into a hospital for the 21^st century.

Dr. Paul Garfinkel addresses the crowd at the Voices from the Wall opening

At the exhibition opening, CAMH President and CEO Dr. Paul Garfinkel noted that, “to the casual observer, the walls surrounding the site have negative associations. Walls, to most, symbolize barriers, and the need for protection. Most would be surprised to learn that these walls have come to symbolize hope and the vast potential and ingenuity of people who were written off by society.”

The more than 260 different inscriptions illustrate the lives of the patients with dates, symbols, figures, names, and phrases etched into the bricks over the decades. Taken together, the images and phrases like, “Mind Fatigue,” “Old Summers” and “it’s a casual madness” create a different type of concrete poetry. "They killed me," is etched into one brick, while others are covered in Xs or zodiac symbols.

“Looking closely at the surviving segments of the wall, you’ll find not only an aesthetically beautiful structure, but an emotionally-charged manuscript,” said Dr. Garfinkel.