Asylum: Inside the Closed World of State Mental Hospitals poses an immediate challenge: what is the audience for a coffee table book about a miserable subject? It is as oxymoronic as a junker limousine or a hairless cat, but contradiction is the essence of this nonetheless earnest book. Christopher Payne is a photographer who specializes in depicting industrial architecture. His previous book illustrated the substations that power the New York City subway. In Asylum, he...