This psychological novel is brimming with questions about cultural bias, philosophical arguments, and is itself a study in perception. Presented as an edited book about the artist Harriet Burden, uniquely composed through interviews, journals, newspaper articles, and written statements, this book is both plot-driven and character-driven. Burden claims to have made a series of artworks, which were presented to the public through three separate "masks". The third "mask" is a famous artist who takes credit for creating the work presented in their name. Neither the third "mask" nor Burden are living, so the reader is left to decide for themselves who actually created the art. (Side note, although the catalog description genders the editor Professor Hess, the novel purposely does not, a lesson in cultural assumptions, which this novel explores.)Publisher description:
When Professor Hess stumbles across an unusual letter to the editor in an art journal, he is surprised to have known so little about the brilliant and mysterious artist it describes, the late Harriet Burden. Intrigued by her story, and by the explosive scandal surrounding her legacy, he begins to interview those who knew her, hoping to separate fact from fiction, only to find himself tumbling down a rabbit's hole of personal and psychological intrigue.