The Wellcome's new exhibition takes the 13th century Royal Bethlem Hospital as a focal point for a boundary-pushing exhibition, says Rachel Teskey

Eva Kotátková, Asylum (2013). Installation view in the new Bedlam exhibition at London's Wellcome Collection© Courtesy Eva Kotátková / Wellcome Collection
Are museums the right place for these discussions, or do they require more time, space and resources than museums can provide? And do visitors even want to confront these issues in a museum context?
The answer to this last question is a resounding ‘yes’, to judge from the queues outside the Wellcome Collection’s latest exhibition on its opening weekend. The Wellcome is renowned for its boundary-pushing approach – mixing art, science and history – and novel exhibition themes: recent exhibitions have covered topics as diverse and abstract as consciousness, the voice, sex and forensic science.

Richard Dadd, Sir Alexander Morison, 1779-1866© Alienist, courtesy Scottish National Portrait Gallery

Shana Moulton, Restless Leg Saga (2012)© Courtesy Shana Moulton
Over the centuries, the development of the hospital – both in its physical form and the nature of the care provided – reflected broader trends in mental health treatment. The exhibition explores the experiences of those who inhabited Bethlem Hospital and other institutions over time and across the world.
Displays of footage, prints, photographs and written accounts of early asylums are interesting to view and often shocking, such as articles on the treatment of James Norris, a patient at Bethlem in the 1800s who was chained to the wall by the neck for ten years, and whose case was instrumental in the creation of new regulations to improve asylums. But these displays place the visitor on the outside looking in, making it difficult to engage with what patients actually experienced.

William Hogarth, The Rake's Progress (with Britannia) (1763)© Trustees of the British Museum

Under the Dome 1892-1930. Ink on paper. Handwritten hospital magazine© Bethlem Museum of the Mind

Tony Robert-Fleury, Pinel freeing the insane from their chains (1876)© Wellcome Library, London
The exhibition really hits its stride when it allows us a glimpse of people’s lives and experiences through their artwork. Particularly striking are two portraits of doctors by their patients.
One is by Richard Dadd depicting the governor of Bethlem as a gaunt, dishevelled and lonely figure, and the other is Van Gogh’s etching of his psychiatrist, who Van Gogh describes as “very nervous and very bizarre himself”: the line between what is perceived as ‘sane’ or ‘insane’ has always been a blurred one.

Henry Hering, Richard Dadd at his easel (1857)© Courtesy Bethlem Museum of the Mind
The lasting impression that these exhibits leave demonstrate that museums can be places to explore social issues. Presenting these narratives sensitively and effectively is a challenge: taking an academic, outsider’s perspective on an issue risks leaving visitors cold and those affected by the issue feeling alienated.

Vincent Van Gogh, L'Homme á la pipe (1890)© Trustees of the British Museum

Jane Fradgley, Cocoon (2012)© Jane Fradgley
And most importantly of all, exhibitions like this need to leave visitors with some space to reflect and something positive to take away. In ‘Bedlam’, this comes in the form of a ‘Designer Asylum’ – a vibrant, utopian, modern-day asylum created from the ideas of over 400 people with experience of the mental health system.
It’s an uplifting way to end a complex exhibition, and proves that the difficult topics are always worth tackling.
- Exhibition runs until January 15 2017. Visit wellcomecollection.org/bedlam.
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© Courtesy Eva Kotátková / Wellcome Collection

Jane Fradgley, Within (2012)© Jane Fradgley

The Royal Hospital of Bethlehem - The Gallery for Women© Bethlem Museum of the Mind

© Bethlem Museum of the Mind

Javier Tellez, Caligari and the Sleepwalker (2008)© Javier Tellez / Galerie Peter Kilchmann

© Javier Tellez / Galerie Peter Kilchmann