The art of Viggo Mortensen

Academy Award-nominated actor Viggo Mortensen, who has demonstrated poetic expression through his roles in such movies as “A History of Violence,” “Eastern Promises,” “A Dangerous Method” and the blockbuster “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, is also the founder of Perceval Press, a small publishing house which has served as an outlet for Mortensen’s other talents: poetry, painting, photography and music. It has also published dozens of books and CDs featuring the work of other poets, artists and musicians.

“When we have success, it’s very modest,” he told CBS News. “But it sort of keeps going.”

Viggo Mortensen

“Midtsjaelland” (2007).

Viggo Mortensen

With the success of “The Lord of the Rings,” Mortensen in 2002 helped found Perceval Press, a small house which publishes books of photography, art and poetry, along with music CDs.

Viggo Mortensen

“Daisy” (1994).

In the early years Perceval’s catalog was predominantly Mortensen’s own prodigious output (he had written poetry before taking up acting, and was exhibiting before he became known as a movie star). Among the titles were “I Forget You For Ever,” “Recent Forgeries,” “Linger,” “Sign Language,” “Hole in the Sun” and “Please Tomorrow.” But as the house’s catalog has grown, so has the breadth of its author list, including poet Scott Wannberg, artists Alex Lambert, Henry Eric Hernández and Yoshitomo Nara, and photographers Robert Whitman and Anne Fishbein.

Viggo Mortensen

“Some books do all right. Like, it’s up and down. It’s very difficult, the publishing industry nowadays, especially a small press. We had success the first few years and things were going well. Usually when a small, independent publisher is doing well, they get bought by a bigger publisher and [become] a subdivision of Random House or Simon & Schuster, whatever. But you lose the right to decide everything.”

Perceval Press

“We do each book very carefully,” Mortensen told CBS News’ Tracy Smith. “It’s gotta be just that kind of paper; it’s gotta be printed in just this way; the cover needs to be like this.

“If you’re a part of a big company, they’re gonna go, ‘No, no, no, we’ll decide. You can have some input, but you’re not gonna have final say.’ And we like to have final say. And we like to make the book the author is going to be happy with. Otherwise, what’s the point?”

Viggo Mortensen

“Te Anau #2” (1999). From “Sign Language.”

Viggo Mortensen

“Ideally, an audience for a photograph or an audience for a movie is taken on a journey where they remember things, where things stand out, things that the writer wants you to notice, things that the photographer wants you to notice because they notice it, you know?” Mortensen said. ”It’s kind of contagious when it’s working, when you take the time to pay attention.”

Viggo Mortensen

“Hindsight” (2002)

Watching Dennis Hopper

While visiting Holland for an exhibition of Dennis Hopper’s work in 2001, Mortensen photographed Hopper photographing a wall while being observed by a friend in the foreground.

“We were just watching [Dennis],” he told CBS News’ Tracy Smith. “And he was going on and on just looking at this wall, which to me was like, ‘What’s there? There’s nothing there.’ But he saw something there, something that he would later paint or use for an abstract photograph.

“I just like that composition … the way he was so single-mindedly focused on that, and she was so single-mindedly watching him. And you can see by the change of his posture and the change of her hand that she’s having an emotional reaction to what he’s doing. And I was having an emotional reaction to what both of ‘em are doing!”

Viggo Mortensen

“Florence” (1995).

Viggo Mortensen

A painting by Mortenson, “Kormak in New York” (2001), from his exhibition and catalog “Sign Language.”

Viggo Mortensen

“Wolvenbosch” (2001). From “Sign Language.”

Viggo Mortensen

Posters.

Viggo Mortensen

“Moravia #5” (2007)

Viggo Mortensen

“Does Perceval make money?” asked Tracy Smith.

“Sometimes!” Mortensen laughed. “I mean, sometimes the books that sell well compensate for the ones that are more difficult, more obscure subjects. And sometimes I make a mistake.

“Sometimes I underestimate, and we have to go do second and third and fourth and fifth printings, and that’s great. It’s difficult for a small press to survive. And yes, sometimes I have to support it. And I’m happy to. It’s a worthwhile thing to feed, you know?”