As beautiful and complex as an Escher work itself—a classic study of a great artist and his works on paperM.C. Escher (1898-1972) is renowned for his ability to render the visions of his mind’s eye. The visions themselves were remarkable: for Escher, the skin of the visible world was nothing more than a piece of cloth that could be cut, folded, shaped, and rearranged in marvelous ways. A superb draftsman, he portrayed these other-worldly transformations of space within the familiar borders of a sheet of paper. The resulting images have become the favorite artworks of viewers around the world.

The Magic of M.C. Escher does justice to this original artist’s inventions. Escher’s works—woodcuts, lithographs, and drawings, accompanied by quotes from the author—are brilliantly arranged to form a cinematic look at his achievements. Here is the magical world of the artist’s mind, an uncharted realm full of exotic conceptions and inventions.

380 illustrations, 330 in color.

M.C. Escher, the artist who lived from 1898-1972, suffers from horrible over-exposure. Who hasn't seen the posters, postcards, t-shirts and coffee mugs, of such well-worn images as a hand drawing another hand or gothic buildings with never-ending staircases? The mass reproduction of these images has carved a firm place in our popular culture yet made the work dismissible as modern art. Beyond the familiar images, though, is an immense body of work. The Magic of M.C. Escher covers in depth the graphic illustrations, woodcuts and lithographs of Escher's career. Escher has always attracted the attention of scientists, mathematicians and teenage boys everywhere. The popular 1980s game of Dungeons and Dragons seems to borrow heavily from the systematic yet mystical quality of Escher's drawing style. With his amazingly repetitive graphic illustration and unflinchingly control of size, shape and shading, Escher draws like a human computer. One can only wonder what he might have done with today's graphic tools. The book itself is creatively put together, with fold-outs, seemingly endless images and a loving introduction by the director of the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague. The minimal text selections that appear throughout are quotes from Escher himself, many taken from letters to family members. The personal thoughts give candid insight into what he thought about his peers, his career and his work; "I really do feel these days like a kind of 'spe*t', and I don't want to 'depend' on my speciality alone, but I also feel it to be my duty to devote myself to that as much as possible". This remarkable book is a wonderful opportunity to enjoy the astounding work of the man who could create two-dimensional origami with a pencil. 196 pages, images on every page.
--JP Cohen

J.L. Locher is a former director of the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, and the author of books on Mondrian, Klee, and others.