The Identity Parade

The Identity Parade is a hand-made visual-arts novel, the story of Simon Paternoster and Zoë Trouvères. It is a fictional examination of madness and depression and how it is possible for those states to be transcended in a creative way. It is also a love story. As well as text, it uses collage, concrete-poetry and cut and paste techniques. It is a novel to be displayed: to be looked at, as well as read. The action primarily takes place within the fictional City of Ov, the home of Simon Paternoster and Zoë Trouvères. The novel traces Simon Paternoster’s progress from sanity into psychosis. It documents his visionary experiences and his descent into the ‘underworld’ which might be called suicidal depression. Simon Paternoster ls resurrected; he pierces the heart of his own terminal despair. Within the first few days of this rebirth he begins to compose The Identity Parade which tells his story.