Even readers that abstain from psychedelics can expect a visceral response to the images and ideas collected in this book. Grey may author words and arrange tools into images but the art happens when someone receives his creation. Net of Being is the potential energy – its kinetic force happens when you open the book and allow it to hit your neurons.
When it does, “I” means “you,” and God means “we.”
In the universe that Grey builds, cosmology has DNA, enthnogens are healers and communion with God is everywhere. You are Alex Grey. He is you. It is part of the gigantic cosmology that bursts off each page of this book and part of the dizzying array of experiences that led to each image included.
Scanning this book is a naked impossibility. Written from a place of wholehearted sincerity, Grey shares press his work received, collaborative efforts including the music group Tool and contributions to Burning Man and a reflective tribute to the victims of 9/11. He does not to brag but because to him, it is something “we” accomplished , an expression of his vast interconnection with the whole of life. This is most evident in his 9/11 tribute. It prompts the reader to think in a new, compassionate, even celebratory way about human connection while acknowledging pain and precognition in art.
Something about Alex Grey’s work – even via a book based reprint – stimulates spiritual and creative process. Even now it is difficult to write a conclusion beyond “buy it” because of the spiraling, infinitely expansive energy tapped.
~ review by Diana Rajchel
Author: Grey, Alex
Inner Traditions, 2012
pp. 206, $40.00
