Michel Perrin's 'Voir les yeux fermés' Examines Shamanism and Art

Ethnologist Michel Perrin's book 'Voir les yeux fermés' (Éditions du Seuil) surveys the ancient union of art and therapy through shamanic practices. It presents a global collection of magical objects—from Inuit and Tlingit masks to Tshokwé divinatory baskets and Navajo sand paintings—arguing that art retains a link to the primal belief that signs can act upon the world. Perrin suggests that contemporary art perpetuates this shamanic worldview, where illness and misfortune are seen as payments for human predation on nature, requiring ritual restoration of order.