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uhambe_nami's review against another edition
4.0
The Magic Mirror is a fascinating narrative of Escher’s life and work, written by a mathematician who criticized his work at first, but became an admirer and friend of Escher after that. Bruno Ernst tells us about Escher’s youth, his failed schooling, the time he spent in Italy, Switzerland and back in the Netherlands, his work in chronological order and the math behind his masterpieces.
tabithar's review against another edition
5.0
This book about the work of M.C. Escher was very close to exactly what I had in mind for learning more about the geometry and approaches Escher used to developing not just tessellations but all his work. Escher's work was categorized by spatial structure (landscapes, multiple worlds interpenetrating, and abstract mathematical solids), flat surface structure (tessellations/metamorphoses, cycles (e.g. Reptiles, in which tessellations become 2D), and approaches to infinity), and representations between space and flat (impossible figures like Waterfall and Belvedere, intertwined figures like the dragon and perspective images like Depth). In addition to sharing a brief but sufficient biography of Escher, the author was able to share sketches in progress before the final work and explanations of how Escher visualized certain surfaces to imagine curves where one would physically see straight lines. The book is not overly mathematical. According to the author and Escher, Escher was more of a visual mathematician than a theoretical one. He enjoyed sharing his work and getting feedback from mathematicians but didn't understand all the background. He was a curious person who explored geometrical curiosity through art. This book included nice images of selections of Escher's work and was by no means a full catalog but good enough to make me consider adding a personal copy to my bookshelf after checking it out from the library.
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