This story began Many years ago, when I co-wrote The Book of Scannan with my friend Ian Reynolds — a psychological thriller that explores a man’s descent into madness after his business partner takes his own life. Set amongst Manchester’s creative industries, the story was inspired by a series of dreams. Yet ever since its publication, I’ve felt that something was missing — a visual and sensory layer that words alone couldn’t capture.

That missing dimension has become AmbiguousArt — a visual, immersive, and psychological extension of the Scannanstory.

The exhibition invites audiences to experience what it feels like to think and perceive differently. Hidden within many of the artworks are second images — shapes and figures that reveal themselves only through time, light, and focus. Some people see them instantly. Others don’t see them at all.

This difference is deliberate. It mirrors the way a neurodiverse mind processes the world: fragmented, layered, often misunderstood, but uniquely beautiful.

Using digital techniques, light, and motion, AmbiguousArt transforms the story of Scannan into an experience — one that blurs reality and illusion, sanity and madness, word and image.

AmbiguousArt images

Using digital techniques, light, and motion, AmbiguousArt transforms the story of Scannan into an experience — one that blurs reality and illusion, sanity and madness, word and image.

With the support of Arts Council England, the exhibition will launch alongside the new edition of The Book of Scannan, bringing the story to life in an entirely new way — where the boundaries between art, perception, and identity disappear.