About The Identity Parade

The Identity Parade is a handmade visual arts novel that tells the story of Simon Paternoster in the City of Ov (the City of possibilities). This major work, created by Simon Miles over the period 1994 to 2005, explores the experience of bipolar mood disorder, a condition that affected the author throughout his adult life.

In The Identity Parade, Simon Paternoster lives out a range of experiences in altered states of consciousness. The intention is to tell an arresting story of visionary / shamanic experience. Each page is quite unique, comprising text, collage, cut-outs and concrete poetry. The visual element brings added impact and cleverly conveys the story’s complexity.

The visual dimension was the author’s creative response to the problem he faced in describing aspects of mental illness using words alone. It is a story of creativity and transcendence. The telling of it challenges the conventional vocabulary of madness. The medical terms for ‘mental-illness’ are never used.