make - fatal error - guile-1.8.2 - alternate prefix still tries to access /1.8/ice-9

[Poor Yorick]

building guile-1.8.2 on gcc (GCC) 3.3.2 with an alternate --prefix, it looks 
like root is still needed:

/path/to/src/guile-1.8.2_sunos/guile-1.8.2/configure \
 --disable-error-on-warning \
 
--prefix=/grid/gro/vol/gbl_statcomp_devel/sparc-32-solaris_nc/bootstrap/guile-1.8.2

Later on, make fails with the following error:


Making install in guile-readline
make  install-recursive
Making install in ice-9
test -z "/1.8/ice-9" || .././install-sh -c -d "/1.8/ice-9"
mkdir: "/1.8/ice-9": Permission denied
mkdir: "/1.8/ice-9": Permission denied
*** Error code 1
make: Fatal error: Command failed for target `install-ice9DATA'


-- 
poor yorick