CLEVELAND, OH.- The show, running from Jan. 20 through March 17, coincides with the Cleveland Print Room’s Fifth Anniversary.

Sometimes, fine art doesn’t start out that way.

In the early 20th century, Dr. Smith Ely Jelliffe, a physician, professor, and author, was one of the earliest proponents of psychoanalysis in the United States. Working in New York, Dr. Jelliffe created a series of glass “magic lantern” slides for use in his lectures about mental health, neurology, and psychiatry. Among Smith’s images are photographs of hospitals, patients, x-rays, diagrams, and artwork by patients.

What better way to mark the Cleveland Print Room’s fifth anniversary than an in-depth look at early 20th century photographic images that challenge the boundaries between art and documentation? The “Inside Outside” show explores the historic use of photography from an early 20th century psychiatric practice.

The show opened on Friday, January 20, and runs through March 17, 2017.

The 3 x 4-inch glass slides, on loan from vernacular photography collector Stacy Waldman, are being displayed in different formats: projected onto the gallery walls, reproduced as enlarged prints, illuminated within lightbox cases, and digitally displayed on an iPad.

The collection challenges viewers and elicits conversations about the ethics of viewing. How can we view patients in a way that humanizes rather than further objectifies them? If we consider the history of outsider art, how can we read these images as part of that legacy, and how can we blur the distinction between art and clinical tool?