The 2 Seckel optical illusion collections (this volume + "Art of...") are the best collaborations I've ever seen on the subject. Not limited by or to the trite everyday old-time "dot-outside-box" stuff relegated to kids, these 2 volumes sample every category in optical-illusion science, including perspective, color, a whole host of 3D/1D impossible objects (including our old friend, the "3-pronged blivet" of 1964), modern/surreal artwork/photography, and op-art psychedelia as well as illusions which are actually experiments that test our other senses. Many you still don't believe even after proof!
I especially had interest in the "face" category, which includes faces hidden within plants and scenery; upside-down faces within right-side-up faces; the mirror-image bilateral split of Hillary Clinton's face; and what I call the "Eyes (& Mouths) of the Beholder" heads (Thatcher & Frakes) in which faces of famous people can be presented upside-down, while only some of their facial features left upright. Photo-cropping software can reproduce such effects. These last 2 ideas could start national fads if the results weren't so unnerving...
The illusions are beautifully presented on each glossed page with enough white-space for breathing room, while not too much to be considered a waste of page area. The paperback books are strongly bound, so pages wouldn't easily become dislodged. Most of the entries have explanatory notes set up as "footnotes" at the end of each "gallery" section (I would have to dock 1/2 star because several of the illusions I questioned were left without explanations).
Get one of the volumes, get both; they complement each other (but the 3rd, larger book, "Great Book of..." appears to be a rehash of the material in both of these).
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