Museum Dr. Guislain

2019

Museum Dr. Guislain is a museum on the history of psychiatry founded in 1986 and based in Ghent Belgium. The starting point for exhibitions and other activities has always remained questioning the distinction between normal and abnormal. The impressive building complex, which currently houses the Museum Dr. Guislain, the Dr. Guislain Psychiatric Centre, and the Dr. Guislain Training Centre, was completed in 1857 as the Hospice pour hommes aliénés. Its realisation gave Ghent international renown. The old psychiatric institution is not only valuable from an architectural point of view but it also bears witness to a chapter in the history of madness. Hence the Flemish Government’s decision in 1999 to recognise the whole complex as a monument.
Karin Borghouts got the commission to photograph the building. The photographs are published in the new collection book and 4 photos are part of the permanent collection in the museum.