Seeing Double

Imagine horses that turn into frogs. Young girls morphing into old women. A duck twisting into a sea-serpent. Sound like the latest digital effects? Guess again. "Seeing Double" is a collection of more than 200 mind-bending illustrations that trick the eye into seeing two different things-but not at the same time Exquisitely rendered images from around the world fill every page of this delightfully entertaining, full-color volume. In creating these playful twosomes, the artist may paint a single line that is the chin of one man, the nose of another, or strike an unusual equilibrium between a shape and its background, teasing our usual sense of perception. Whatever the method, once you've discovered both meanings, it's impossible to focus on just one; the other keeps popping into your consciousness. J. Richard Block leads us on a tour of the best classic and contemporary illusions, from Giuseppe Arcimboldo's Baroque paintings to Salvador Dali's Surrealist creations to recent innovations by today's cleverest cartoonists and artists. Offering vivid explanations of each picture's illusory effect, Block shows the full variety of approaches to double images, organizing the illusions by technique and type. Along the way, he tells the fascinating stories behind these eye tricks, which have been used in everything from advertisements to propaganda, as well as for pure entertainment.