P.I. Although the six towers of the 'Over-Amstel' Penitentiary Institution — locally known as the 'Bijlmerbajes' — represent an important landmark in the urban landscape of Amsterdam, the interiors of these buildings are unknown territory to most people. Nico Bick however, was granted access into this prison, the most well known in the Netherlands. From 2006 until 2011 he meticulously photographed cells of prisoners, isolation cells, communal rooms, control rooms and yards but also the concrete perimeter wall that circumferences the entire complex. We can view this work therefore as an inventory, an investigation of spatial diversity, a dissection of functionality and a typology of confinement.
