Opening at Valentine
Woody Guthrie’s Wardy
Forty:
Greystone Park State Hospital Revisited,
Opening Friday March 21 from
6-9
The exhibit runs
through Sunday April 13
A new book by Phillip Buehler, reveals a largely unknown slice of
American icon and folk music legend Woody Guthrie’s life. Woody Guthrie’s
Wardy Forty brings into view the five years the singer, songwriter, and
activist spent as a patient at Greystone Park State Hospital in Morris Plains,
New Jersey. Afflicted with Huntington’s disease (HD), Guthrie lived the last 15
years of his life in hospitals, suffering from this degenerative neurological
disorder. One of these hospitals was Greystone Park, where he was a patient
from 1956 through 1961. He lived in Ward 40 and called it “Wardy Forty.” It was
here that 19-year-old Bob Dylan met his idol and the torch was symbolically
passed to a new generation of folk singer.
Phillip Buehler has spent much of his life climbing
over fences and into windows to explore the ruins of 20th century
America. Greystone Park had been abandoned for over 40 years when Buehler first
slipped past the state police station and climbed through an open window. After
coming across thousands of negatives in the deserted darkroom, he researched
the hospital and discovered that Woody Guthrie once lived there. He reached out
to Guthrie’s daughter Nora Guthrie at the Woody Guthrie Foundation &
Archives, who gave him Guthrie’s case number. Buehler was then able to pull
negatives from Guthrie’s files at Greystone Park, beginning a 10-year journey
that led to Woody
Guthrie’s Wardy Forty: Greystone Park State Hospital Revisited.
The exhibit at Valentine will focus on, historic photographs, projections and items
from the files at Greystone as well as new photographs by Buehler The book will
be available for viewing and purchase.
