The apartment of the reclusive, self-taught artist Henry Darger, who lived and died in Chicago from 1892 to 1973. After his death Darger’s landlords discovered in astonishment the contents of his room which he had kept a complete secret during his life: dozens of strange watercolour paintings, some of them measuring 10 feet in length; reams of archival material and bric-a-brac; and a 15,145-page novel typewritten and bound in 15 volumes, entitled In the Realms of the Unreal. Set in a mythical world, it tells the epic tale of the seven Vivian Girls who lead a rebellion against the evil Glandelinians who enslave and torture innocent children. The majority of Darger’s work is now kept in the American Folk Art Museum.

The apartment of the reclusive, self-taught artist Henry Darger, who lived and died in Chicago from 1892 to 1973. After his death Darger’s landlords discovered in astonishment the contents of his room which he had kept a complete secret during his life: dozens of strange watercolour paintings, some of them measuring 10 feet in length; reams of archival material and bric-a-brac; and a 15,145-page novel typewritten and bound in 15 volumes, entitled In the Realms of the Unreal. Set in a mythical world, it tells the epic tale of the seven Vivian Girls who lead a rebellion against the evil Glandelinians who enslave and torture innocent children. The majority of Darger’s work is now kept in the American Folk Art Museum.