When it comes to images, why does it always seem as if Mieke Bal has already been there, done that, and thought it through? This is a book that could have been called ‘How to Do Things with Images’, to echo J. L. Austin's study of words. But that would not have been enough, because Mieke's project also insists on noticing how images do things with and to us – how they affect us, lead us astray or towards insight and transformation. Do we carry images in our minds in memories and fantasies? Or do they carry us away, like the vehicles of metaphors that break through the guard rails of logic into ana-logic? When you pick up this book, you will have to be prepared to break out of some habitual ways of thinking about what it means to see a film, go to the theatre, visit an exhibition, read a book, hear a voice. Image-Thinking connects all these practices as image-performances across the boundaries of media in their involvement with the body of beholder/ participant.

Superficially, this is a book about Mieke Bal's practice as a filmmaker, with special emphasis on the phenomenon of madness. When read immersively, however, it reveals itself as a guide through a set of experimental image practices ranging across and beyond the arts. We know that Mieke's films are often staged within non-theatrical cinematic installations. The effect is a condensed and super-charged version of my own favourite renegade practice in American multiplex cinemas, roaming the hallways between action thrillers, moody melodramas and outrageous comedies. The viewer's decisions are part of the work, as are those of the filmmaker in sometimes allowing accidental intrusions into the mise en scène. A carnivalesque tolerance for improvisation and surprising juxtaposition makes the experience of her work into a labyrinth of discovery. Image-Thinking provides an Ariadne's thread through the maze, tracing Mieke's thought process as these works came together with teams of collaborators. Instead of treating the artwork as the finished product, assembled after a long ordeal of research and planning, Mieke emphasises the ‘search’ itself as the work, the ‘thought-image’ as the lamp that lights the way.