The duo lobbied the Ministry of Justice for permission to put on the show. “We thought: if we have the opportunity to make a project here, we should think very carefully about how we could do that — not to sensationalize the experience, but to try and bring together a group of artists and writers to whom the place would speak,” said James Lingwood, Artangel’s co-director. “Without exception, the artists that we wanted to be our A List are here.”

The exhibition is like a scavenger hunt. It starts in the prison’s tall, domed atrium, from which rows of cells dart out on several floors. There is no suggested itinerary; visitors make their own way through the prison wings. Some of the cells they walk into are empty; others contain artworks by artists including Marlene Dumas and Richard Hamilton, videos by Nan Goldin, and/or headsets with which to listen to readings of texts written and voiced by authors such as Mr. Ai and Jeanette Winterson.

Only 100 visitors will be admitted every hour, Mr. Lingwood said. “One of the things that was very important to us was that the soundtrack to the whole experience be silence,” he said. “When Oscar Wilde was here, prisoners were basically kept on their own in their cells almost all the time, and there was almost no sound.”

“We want people to be deeply moved, to reflect,” he added.

Wilde’s cell is a haunting, narrow space (3.4 meters by 2.15 meters) with painted brick walls, a tall vaulted ceiling, and a high window. There are no artworks to distract visitors inside it. In a neighboring cell are vintage copies of the books that he requested to read while in jail: volumes by Saint Augustine and Pascal, and poetry by Wordsworth, Keats and Hafiz.