Der Zauberspiegel des M.C. Escher

Water that flows uphill, stairs leading into infinity, regular tessellations where the canvas is filled seamlessly with congruent figures: Escher's works can induce feelings of dizziness, confuse, and compel viewers to look closely and seek understanding. Long before the advent of the first computer-generated 3D images, the Dutch graphic artist Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) - who claimed to be mathematically rather untalented - was already a master of the third dimension. His impossible perspectives, optical distortions, tessellations, Möbius strips, reflections, and illusions are a tribute to the nearly limitless possibilities of the human mind and have made him famous worldwide.

Escher's lithographs and woodcuts engage the figurative basic competence of humans, captivating both laypeople and professionals from mathematics, cognitive psychology, or neurology. In particular, the regular tiling, which serves as a central mathematical theme in Escher's entire work, has helped generations of math teachers spark synapses in stubborn student brains.

The mathematician Bruno Ernst visited the Dutch artist every week for a year, observing him at work and extensively questioning him about his art. The book "The Magic Mirror of M.C. Escher," which emerged from these conversations and was critically reviewed and supplemented by Escher himself, is an undisputed classic and an authentic source of information about the often misunderstood artist's work. In addition to information about Escher's life, this updated and redesigned edition of a true TASCHEN classic contains 250 illustrations and detailed explanations of all the mathematical phenomena depicted.