Word art on the page
Unlike other books, House of Leaves offers words not only in lines on a page, but also in scattered disarray, sometimes in circles, sometimes on the edge of the page, sometimes upside down. The use of words to form visual art is a type of metafictional imagery that points the reader to the way a book influences the reader. The book itself is about that very theme, and as the character reads a book that makes him go crazy, the words of the page start to make the reader feel crazy, too.
Metafiction and psychological imagery
Within the actual information of the text, there is a use of imagery that is designed to unnerve and perplex the reader, sometimes into states of horror. The use of metafiction makes the reader feel a deep connection with the character of the book. Simply put, the reader reading the book encounters a character who is also reading a book, except he is going crazy. The imagery of psychological horror is used through the metafiction to ask the reader a very important question about their experience of House of Leaves: Are you going crazy?
Visual art (tattoos and photography)
The imagery of the Johnny's life is full of art, primarily visual art. He is an artist by trade. Instead of painting and putting on galleries or something, he tattoos for a living, making people's skin into his canvas. This is similar to the person he identifies with, Navidson, who is a photographer by trade. The use of visual art in the text makes this novel into a kind of image-fiction. The use of art within the novel is another part of the novel's complex use of metafiction.
The impressionable soul
The implied imagery of the novel is the way the book portrays a reader within the book. Johnny is a character with a blown-out-of-proportion sensitivity that points the reader to impressionability. Johnny is so impressionable that when he identifies with the book he loves, he loses his mind and falls apart. He loses his job and uproots his life to learn more about the book. He needs it. He is having a religious experience with art that verges on absolute desperation, and when he finds out there is magic on the other side of the book, he will never be the same.
