Say what you like about the world’s greatest songwriter – the only popular musician awarded the Nobel Prize in literature – Bob Dylan has proved a genius at confounding the expectations of his admirers.

Dylan, the protest singer, never conformed to the hopes of the liberal Left. He outraged the folkies by “going electric” in 1965, and he confused everybody by embracing evangelical Christianity in 1978.

And this instinct for doing the unexpected is nowhere more apparent than in his art. The first exhibition of his work was held in Germany in 2007, and he has since held widely-attended shows around the world, with a distinctive and often very elliptical visual style that combines his love of mythic Americana with the raw feel of German Expressionism.

Mondo Scripto, Dylan’s latest project – both an exhibition and a book – is a series of drawings inspired by 60 of his songs, each accompanied by hand-written lyrics. The exhibition, which The Daily Telegraph has been invited to preview exclusively, opens at London’s Halcyon Gallery today.

If it sounds straightforward, it is far from being a friendly gesture to the fans. Just as millions have turned up to his tours to find their favourite songs rendered unrecognisable, lyrics spat out in unfamiliar patterns and time signatures randomly changed, so Dylan’s paintings and drawings often leave you scratching your head at their apparent opacity. He’s trying to say something, you feel – if I could just work out what it was.