Mobile illustration — William Denis

A zine of wild illustrations made in collaboration with Hippolyte Lesseliers to celebrate the comeback of spring in Brussels, somewhere between the terrace reopenings and old villagish - cultish rituals linked to this specific period of the year.

60 pages, 13x20cm, printed on Comcolor at ‘Les Ateliers du Toner’.

Le Rat, Frère des lisières

Cover and series of illustrations for ‘Le Rat, Frère des lisières’, a beautiful text by Julie Delfour exploring humanity’s physical and psychic coexistence with the rat.

Published by Klincksieck Editions, 12x18cm

Parties

Conversation Matters - Le village sans fous

Those texts contain a research on the importance of the «village fool» figure within society and the psychiatric institution, and also an interview of Anne-Françoise Rouche, the director of a renowned Art Brut Contemporary center in Belgium called « La S Grand Atelier ». To illustrate these subject matters, I realised a series of illustration around the theme of the “fool” and took pictures at La S Grand Atelier.

Courtesy La "S" Grand Atelier

Le départ de papa

This work is a personal story about the time my dad went to ex Yugoslavia as a peace maker when I was five, in 2006. Going through letters and pictures we sent each other at that time, I wrote a text about how I viewed war as a child, with a vision that went from the heroic idea of it I would see on television, to the reality of a parent’s absence, which you worry about, and make you not want him to be a hero anymore. Through this story of a growth of maturity, I illustrated the text and the feelings of a kid confronted to this situation.

20 x 28 cm, 120 pages

Virginia’s houses

This works tells, through text and illustrations, the life of Virginia Woolf in three different books representing the three main houses of her life. The first book is focused on her childhood and the system she grew in, the second on her youth and progressist minds at the time, and the final one on her adult life, publication and legacy. I wrote, drew and designed the three books.

Avertissement

I worked on illustrating a thesis written by Belgian surrealist poet Paul Nougé, which he wrote as an intro to one of Magritte’s expositions in Brussels. This text explains how painting could save society at the time from going right into a wall, by opening people’s true visions, which I reinterpreted myself with my current vision using acrylic painting.

“Les Belles Lettres” publication

In august 2022, I worked for French publisher “Les Belles Lettres” to illustrate a text about how sci fi works in our consciousness next to casual sciences, written by philosoph Vincent Bontems and physician Roland Lehoucq.

Postal cards from the hand to the head

A series of 20 postal cards telling a one-way conversations, where my hand talks to my head, like an employee to its employer. This project was an introspection of how my body feels along with my soul, and all the thoughts and feelings coming out when i start drawing. This project was made at La Cambre.

Mantique tea infusions illustrations

During an internship at Oilinwater studio in Brussels, I worked on a series of illustration on the zodiac signs for a new tea infusions brand called “Mantique” for which the studio was creating the visual identity before it got on the market. The illustrations will be used on the packaging box, which you can see up here the front on the left and the back on the right, with the drawing on both sides of it.