Much of our understanding of the world comes from looking at the things which surround us. Hologaphy is the first technique, since the invention of linear perspective during the Renaissance, to offer a fundamentally different method of recording and displaying space and the objects within it. If holography reproduces the light which originally came from an object, what is it that we see when we look at the hologram? Does this ‘possible illusion’ have a place in museum culture? This paper explores key historical milestones in cultural holographic imaging, the paradox of looking at, and interpreting, objects which are not actually there and the creative potential, explored by artists, using objects or the space where they once were.