Artists Books
Raleigh News & Observer
By Steve Litt
Staff Writer
August 12, 1985
WILMINGTON — For hundreds of years, the standard printed book has been a rectangular object with a spine, pages to turn, text to read, a beginning, middle and end.
Not so for Dennis Walsak.
Five years ago, the 32-year-old graphic designer began making books that open up like rainbowcolored pinwheels, that open in four directions or that unfold like Japanese origami constructions. With their unusual construction and combinations of words and images, they resemble sculpture as much as books on a library shelf.
Walsak called his creations "book art" and thought he was pioneering new ground in the realm of aesthetics.
"I thought what I was doing was fairly unique," he said. "I started blind into artist's books. I had no idea how many people were making them."
But Walsak soon found that he had independently happened upon an art form that gained currency around the world in the 1960s. As part of the general revolutionary mood of the time, artists began an end-run around museums, galleries, publishing houses and film studios. They produced their own films, made their own books and took art performances out into the streets. It was a subversion of the idea that art was supposed to be rare, expensive and the property of elites.
Of these groups, Walsak said he particularly admired Fluxus, the German art movement whose activities included "happenings"—visual, musical and literary events that demanded viewer participation. Their ideas helped inspire his search for his own type of art.
Walsak had attended Chowan College in Murfreesboro, NC, and then started Modular Graphic Services, a graphic design studio at 107 Market St. in Wilmington, in 1976.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he began looking for a way to use his design skills and to make small art objects. The books naturally evolved.
"Books are neat," he said. "They can be passed along. It's not a static image on the wall. Books move."
He pulled examples from an unobtrusive-looking pile on a Formica-topped metal table at Modular Graphics. They were morsels for the mind and the eye.
One titled "Fire Escape" was bound with square, red, cloth covers. The book unfolded in one continuous, spiraling page that has images of fire escapes printed on both sides in dramatic black and white.
"Locomotion: A Moving Novel" was bound so it could be opened from both sides. It had pictures of Walsak's feet stepping along in flip-flop sandals. When opened on a table and flipped along, the book made a "flipflop" sound.
"Short Cycle" was bound with gray cloth covers and dangling black threads that held the pages in place. It was constructed so it could be opened and read from all four sides. Inside were images of the Manhattan skyline, a man demonstrating sign language movements, fields of arrows and floating words.
"You have to interact with them, and they perform," he said of the books. "This book 'Fire Escape' is sculptural. You can play with it like a Slinky."
"Locomotion: A Moving Novel" and Walsak's other books often have double meanings. Like a real fire escape Walsak's "Fire Escape" is "something that's laying in wait for a moment to be used," the artist said.
Another book, "Revolving Door" is built somewhat like a revolving door, with a spiral binding and doorlike pages with pictures of people walking through a real revolving door.
"A Truly Magnetic Book" has magnets pasted on the inside so that it can't be closed. The covers naturally repel each other. The text on the sole page in the book says, "I couldn't close the covers."
Walsak has received a good deal of attention for his books. They have been shown at the N.C. Museum of Art, the Franklin Furnace gallery in New York and galleries throughout the Southeast. His books also are on sale at art bookstores in Washington, Los Angeles and New York for $20 to $25.
"I'm not recouping what it costs to make them," he said. "But they help me tremendously in my professional work." He said working with the books has increased his sensitivity to materials and narrative sequence in the brochures, booklets, stationary, annual reports and logos he produces at Modular Graphics.
The pages for "Short Cycle" were printed in an edition of 1,000. So far, Walsak has made 500 or so complete copies. "Fire Escape" was printed in an edition of 150. But some of the books are made in smaller editions.
Book art has come a long way, Walsak said, and he wants to take his art even further. His job and family—he is married and has a 5-year-old daughter—though, compete for time.
"It's been in the very busiest times that I have the inspiration to create one of these books," he said. "An idea comes along and strikes me on the head with an idea that rings out to be done so loudly that it's impossible for me to ignore it... like trying to ignore a bell."
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