Having earlier taught in Milwaukee for ten years, I became aware of Hamady's work in the 1970s. Because of his liking for Ballast Quarterly Review (which I had founded in 1985), he and I began to exchange spirited letters (along with a mix of enclosures) once or twice or more a month. This led to collaborations of one kind or another, eventually resulting in exhibitions, published essays, and an archive of his artist’s books. I saved everything, even all the envelopes and mailing containers, in part because they were always addressed to mutilations of my name, such as Corps du Roy, Rhoidamoto, Trompe L’Roi at Labbast, Royatolla, and so on. This continued for more than a decade, no doubt to the postman’s amusement (I hope).
Among my favorite of Walter’s hijinks was the occasion on which, in the process of publishing one of his 131 handmade artist’s books, he turned a copy of my book on Art and Camouflage into confetti, combined that with paper pulp, and "camouflaged" my book in one of his own.
While looking back on what I have, I recently produced a twenty-minute video talk (a brief memoir-like tribute) titled BOOK ART: Walter Hamady’s Books, Collages and Assemblages, which can be accessed free online on my YouTube channel.
