I’ve been re-reading Robert Holdstock’s fantasy novel Lavondyss recently. ( I find that something entertaining at night helps me relax when I’ve got a lot going on). In the book, the main character uses masks in a shamanic way, to view different aspects of a situation. Using different masks, she can see different aspects of the intersecting states of reality that she as shaman explores and makes use of.

Yesterday I was looking over Andy’s shoulder at a web page he was viewing on psychological experiments and noticed the name of one of them: "God Helmet", where an artificial device stimulates the areas of the brain that are responsible for religious experiences (or so the experimenters theorise). I was struck by the similarity between this and a fictional device used in the Holdstock books to stimulate parts of the brain responsible for reaching back into primal memories. A kind of ‘race memory helmet’, if you will. The activity of these artificial, technological devices is paralleled by the shaman’s masks. These are portrayed as a different and more effective technology in this novel.

Today I was thinking about the different roles we take on in artists’ books to do different things, to present ourselves and our point of view in different ways, and to look at our subject in different ways. The parallel between this and the masks sprang up. In choosing the identity of our book as political, lyrical, epic, funny, fine-press-work, inquisitive,documentary, or a whole host of other adjectivally-described characterisations, we are choosing which mask the book represents. The book’s outlook and the intention of the artist are pointed towards stimulating the reader’s experience.

The book as ‘god helmet’, and as a track through the haunted woods in the care of a shaman.

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