School Library Journal Review
Adult/High School-This visually stunning collection will appeal to illusion enthusiasts as well as to art lovers. It presents more than 270 classic examples and works of art that incorporate them. The book is divided into "galleries" and endnotes explain individual entries and how they work. One could spend hours exploring its thoughtful arrangement and the excellent-quality, full-color and black-and-white reproductions. There is factual information about the science behind the illusions, a bit about the artists, and about the types of illusion. However, this is, by and large, a sophisticated coffee-table book that young people will enjoy poring over and figuring out what they see or think they see.-Cynde Suite, formerly at Horry County Memorial Library, Surfside Beach, SC (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
You can't always believe what you see in The Great Book of Optical Illusions by Al Seckel. Organized in eight sections called "galleries," the exhaustive volume presents more than 280 color and b&w images created by the likes of M.C. Escher, Salvador Dal!, Shigeo Fukuda and Ren Magritte. Classics such as Impossible Staircase and Rubin's Face/Vase Illusion are also included; Seckel's IllusionWorks presents brand-new stunners, each of which is explained at chapter's end. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Library Journal Review
A leading authority on visual perception and a designer of interactive galleries for science museums around the world, Seckel here assembles more than 300 visual illusions, some of which have fascinated viewers for centuries and others that are designed specifically to challenge one's visual intelligence in today's world. The book collects traditional puzzles such as eternal spirals and ground/field reversal images, as well as works by such artists as M.C. Escher and Ren Magritte; other illusions involve themes, photographs, and sculptures from the last 20 years. Visual science, which the author claims has become "one of the most exciting areas in current scientific research," not only challenges and tricks the reader but encourages us to look differently at our own world. This is a fun-packed book, divided into seven galleries, with illusions depicted in full color. Each illusion presents the reader with a question or a problem to solve, with the answer and explanation given in detail at the end of each gallery. A glossary of terms and a list of resources are also provided. A highly useful and entertaining book for public, school, and academic libraries.-David A. Berone, Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
