Donovan Wylie: MAZE

Hardcover | 23.5 x 2.8 x 29.5 cm | 186 pp

Steidl | 2009 | 9783865219077

Three volumes in card slipcase

Between 2002 and 2003 Donovan Wylie spent almost a hundred days photographing inside the Maze prison. Through its history of protests, hunger strikes and escapes, this prison, holding both republican and loyalist prisoners, became synonymous with the Northern Ireland conflict. After the Belfast peace agreement in 1998, inmates were gradually released, but the Maze remained open. Wylie was the only photographer granted official and unlimited access to the site, and when the demolition of the prison began, symbolising the end of the conflict in 2007, he systematically recorded its demise.

The photographs which document this period are divided into four sections, each depicting a “layer” of the prison: the internal walls, the various modes of fencing, the H-blocks and, finally, the perimeter walls, which reveal the external landscape. Eventually this once-enclosed space is reintegrated with the outside world.

First published in 2004 to critical acclaim, this second edition comprises three volumes: Maze 2002/03, Maze 2007/08, and The Architecture of Containment -  an essay by Louise Purbrick.