Minus Equals Plus

Rating:
Summary: Almost everything I hoped it would be. . .
Review: Although the artwork is more than up to par, in a good portion of the book, it's too small to enjoy it fully. If a magnifying glass was included with the purchase, it would be five stars all the way.

Rating:
Summary: A VISUAL FEAST
Review: I'd better admit something before I start this review. I'm a friend of Istvan Banyai. We've been known to drink aviator cocktails in New York bars. We've laughed a lot. Both before taking off with the aviators and also in flight. Minus Equals Plus is a portfolio of Istvan's illustration work. On a functional level anyone will see that he's a master craftsman/draughtsman. But this sublime skill is easily overshadowed by his imagination and intellect which manifest themselves in the most jaw-droppingly brilliant flights of fancy and acute visual wit. At the heart of this playfulness(and, on occasion, more sinister excursions)is Istvan's ability to conjure up extraordinary and unexpected connections between objects/people/situations. As you turn the pages, you can feel your retinas smiling. "Zoom" is probably Istvan's most widely acclaimed work. A children's book which starts on a close-up image of a cockerel's crest and then takes you further and further from the original object and its context until you reach the final picture: planet earth seen from space. How? Read the book. This is Istvan working his magic for children. He's good for an adult audience too. His X-rated illustrations are very sexy. They're never smutty, always erotic. There's a curious innocence about the young man (or possibly young woman) performing cunnilingus on the (other?) woman. The 'performer' is standing, holding the 'performee' upside down. It's just as if the naked waltz they were enjoying went a little haywire. Oh, and this is all happening on television with the single viewer (face unseen) firmly in control of the remote. In another piece, couples grope (and more) each other at a party. Again it avoids being sleazy or laddish. There's a wonderful nonchalance about the whole scene, including the foreground fellatio. Minus Equals Plus is a feast for your eyes. Switching from visual wit to whimsy, sex to satire, surrealism to juxtapositionism. The thing about almost all of this book is its joyousness. Istvan's inclusion of work rejected by various clients and editors over the years is gleeful in itself. You can't help thinking he included it to lead you to only one possible conclusion.That this was their loss. The fools. And now is probably the right time to admit something else. Faced with such visual wealth, words really are so poor and inadequate. So give your eyes (and mind) a treat. They'll thank you for it.