SignLanguage [signed] [first edition]

This long awaited second publication by the highly recognized film actor and artist/poet, Viggo Mortensen melds his acutely sensitive ability to intertwine words, paintings and photography into one lyrical conceptual landscape. Working like a personal diary, SignLanguage, takes us on a visual journey into the soul of Mortensen's creative forces. His diary-based photographs, taken while filming 'The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Rings' become dream-like landscapes shrouded in mystery and suspense while his multi-layered paintings entwine themselves around stanzas of poetry. The melding of all three forces allows the reader to become acutely aware of the details surrounding the artists existence, a multiple of split-second images burned into the mind of a thousand different places. SignLanguage exquisitely features extensive color and black and white reproductions of both his photographic works and his intensely personal collage based paintings, partly intertwined in an informative essay by international critic and poet, Kevin Power. Special highlights also include unique photographs by Mortensen while on location during the filming of 'The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'.