Adventures with Impossible Figures

Bruno Ernst (alias of J.A.F de Rijk), "Adventures with Impossible Figures"

Tarquin | 1986 | ISBN: 0906212545 | 96 pages | Djvu | 1,9 MB

Describes the methods which are used to construct intriguing impossible figures which can tease the eye and baffle the imagination. Copious examples are drawn from the author's own work and the fertile imagination of Escher and Oscar Reutersvärd.

Summary: More than entertainment

Rating: 5

To many books on impossible figures are mere entertainment. This one offers a preamble to get the reader/viewer thinking. I use these with some of my students and in the day and age of over stimulated teenagers this book still sparks some interest.

Contents

Real or Unreal?

1. The tri-bar

2. The mysterious box and other curious figures

3. Misleading signposts

4. Perceptual inversion

5. Impossible cuboids

6. Impossible stairs

7. Planes far and near at the same time

8. Both horizontal and vertical

9. Disappearing spaces

10. A test for impossibility?

Bibliography