State Penitentiary Goes Condo was first published as an Artist’s Page in WPA Document: Celebrating More Than a Decade, 1986. It was conceived as a piece that would have a second life as a work of public art. Soon after the initial publication, the piece was re-designed to replicate a page from the real estate section of the Baltimore Sun newspaper. The article claimed that a developer, Mr. Gentry, was interested in converting the Penitentiary, conveniently located in downtown Baltimore, to a condominium complex. Half of the cells would be available to people in the community and the other half would be reserved for inmates who would be able to buy their cells with little or no down payment and earn equity while in prison.

Fessler located pictures taken inside the prison, and collaged furniture into the stark cells. One photograph shows a cell with a stylish contemporary table and chairs. Fresh fruit and a bottle of wine on the table await the arrival of guests. In another picture there is a view through the prison’s massive iron bars into a room that could have been designed by Martha Stewart. Under the image the caption reads, “Wood-burning fireplace adds warmth to the luxury model.”

The article was written in typical real estate language, where the most undesirable aspect of a property is made to sound like an asset. “The window treatment will include authentic iron bars, retaining the prison motif. Handy walk-in closets will be eliminated in the inmate condos, opening up more usable floor space.”

The piece was written during a crisis of extreme over-crowding in the Baltimore prison system that resulted in prisoners winning lawsuits for living in conditions that were deemed “cruel and unusual punishment.” Fessler had her fictitious article printed on newsprint and inserted it into newspapers on doorsteps, in newspaper stands, and in coin-operated newspaper boxes across the city over the course of a year.

State Penitentiary Goes Condo, by Ann Fessler, 1986
Artist’s Pages, WPA Document: Celebrating More Than a Decade, edited by Helen M. Brunner and Donald H. Russell, Jr.; Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, D.C., 1986

State Penitentiary Goes Condo, by Ann Fessler, public art piece, 1987
Medium: offset printed on newsprint, h. 22 ⅝” x w. 14 ½”
Hundreds dispersed throughout Baltimore 1987–1988
Edition of 50, signed and numbered