Raised by his mother as if he were a girl, August Walla never knew his father. Suffering from various disorders, he was unable to attend school regularly and was placed in a specialized institution. At the age of sixteen, he was committed after threatening to hang himself and set fire to his house. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, he remained there for four years, then lived with his mother before being admitted to Gugging Psychiatric Hospital in 1970. In 1986, he joined the Gugging Artists' House.

In the late 1950s, August Walla began writing manifestos, repurposing objects which he covered with indecipherable inscriptions, and taking photographs, but it was at Gugging that he was encouraged to create a body of pictorial work in which writing and drawing were closely intertwined. He invented languages, combining different words inspired by foreign language dictionaries he collected, associating them with gods, demons, saints, prophets, imaginary deities, and enigmatic symbols.

He filled thousands of pages with drawings and writing and painted on the walls and furniture of his room, on found objects, on the facades of the hospital, and on those of neighboring houses. He then documented his work by photographing it. For him, his works were like talismans that protected him from dangers, particularly from spirits, men, and death.

An iconic figure of Art Brut, his work is featured in some of the world's finest collections, including those of the Collection de l'Art Brut in Switzerland, the MoMA in New York, and the Centre Pompidou.