The Other Side by Istvan Banyai
Mind Bend
In The Other Side, artist, designer, provocateur Istvan Banyai takes
readers on another exceptional visual journey. In graphically stunning
illustrations that feature many clever twists in point of view, familiar scenes
turn and turn again to show us the back, the front, the top, the bottom, the
opposite, the other side of each perspective. Heres a door. Whats on the
other side? Heres a shoreline. Whats on the other side? Heres a curtain.
Whats on the other side? The answers may surprise you. Delightful, sly,
funny, and challenging, The Other Side will make readers want to look,
and think, twice.
Personal Review: The Other Side by Istvan Banyai
In the spirit of "The Other SIde," I'm going to put the bottom line on top:
ALthough this book defies categorization, it's not really a kids' book. I
suppose some kids in elementary school might enjoy the graphic style, and
"get" the basic premise (which is either "what happens next?" or "what
would this look like from a different perspective?"), the verbal and visual
references, wit, puns, allusions, and reverals might elude them.

"The Other Side" is an unusual and very creative book consisting of a
series of high quality graphic and op art illustrations, presenting a scene
and, on the following page, what the scene looks like from "the other side."
For clarity, here are some examples: We see a picture of caged tiger at a
zoo looking out at a little girl and her cat. Hmmm...what might happen next,
or,--as on some pages--what is the reverse of this? Turn the page, and we
see the girl and the tiger looking at the caged cat, the bars twisted as if, a
la Superman, the lion (or the cat?) had separated the bars. Another simple
favorite is two views of boys playing with a football: One page shows the
view of the hiker's behind from the quarterback's perspective; the next
page shows the (upside-down) quarterback from the between the legs,
upside-down perspective of the hiker. However, another scene shows an
apparent shooting (with mannequins moving their heads to look around the
corner) but it's really a film being shot. This has very little to do with
reasoning or perceptual skill; for all the visual puns and surprises; it's really
about the possibilities of story telling. The visual question and answers in
"Other Side of" work require different kinds of reasoning Some
"reversals" make logical or causal sense; others grant some artistic
license--author has one notion of what "the other side" might look like--but
it's not the only one.
THis is not really a kid's book; I think it's most appropriate fir young teens
and up. Unlike "The Red Book," a book that also plays with self-referential
visuals and explores point of view, "the other side of has relatively little plot
or time sequence, although most of the scenes are linked: Some of the
visuals in one scene will be partially replicated or referenced in another.
For example, one visual sequence begins with paper airplanes, which are
echoed by a picture of small planes near a large jet, inside the jet a
passenger reads a travel brochure, next, we see the woman on the
brochure's cover looking up at the jet from the island shown on the
brochure. However, Banyai basically stops here. (I say basically, because
a dog shown on the island is--quite improbably--shown on "the other side"
of a tree in a snow covered forest. ) Part of the fun is finding these mini-
links between different sequences, especially since some are visual and
some symbolic/language-based.
At its best, then, the book occupies the same plane as Zen koans (as in
the popularized, "what is the sound of one hand clapping?"), where the
answers require imagination, and perhaps even a reconsideration of what
constitutes a question and an answer. While Banyai illustrations show
remarkable invention and graphic style. I think the book will appeal less to
art students than to those with interests in engineering, math, and science,
people who like to reader hypothesize, test theories, and observe (some
of the classic elements of the scientific method), The imaginative
antecedents and aftermaths may also stimulate budding writers and poets,
or perhaps photographers. While this is an exciting art book for young
teens intrigued by representation (and talent may be a requirement too);

others may feel frustrated, or, more likely, bored by it, tossing it aside for
manga--or a book about Zen.
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