Masters of Deception: Escher, Dalí & the Artists of Optical Illusion

This is a beautiful paperback art book that covers a broad spectrum of art related to optical illusions. I've seen it on sale in many locations, including museum gift shops. Escher, Dali, and Arcimboldo are represented (as you'd expect) but the bulk of the book is devoted to a wide variety of artists inspired by either the artists mentioned earlier or various quirks of visual perception. Op Art is well-represented, as are ambigrams, nontraditional portraiture, unabashedly commercial artwork, and sculptures based on constructions in Escher's famous works. I'd already seen many of these images on the internet, but it's better to see them within this intelligent context. The book, with its many full-page reproductions, does a wonderful job of exciting the reader with the possibilities of illusionistic art, and wisely lets the artwork speak for itself more often than not.Two things did surprise me about this book (although they did not cause me to lower my rating). There is very little in here to connect these works of art to even the basic principles of visual perception in layman's terms. I was also surprised to see so little attention given to Magritte, who seems to have overtaken Dali in the public's mind as the supreme Surrealist. There is some minor nudity scattered around, but nothing that isn't PG-13.When I was a teen many years ago, I treasured my Escher calendars and Dali postcards. I would have loved to have seen such a book back then, and I am glad that this book is still in print and reasonably popular.

Not quite what I was expecting from other reviewers.But still well worth 5 stars plus.For a start it is not a coffee book with pictures to be leafed through when bored. The writing is central to the book; explaining that vision itself is deception before considering deception in art (which is all , in turn, deception by definition).Then the author makes no attempt at an exhaustive history of optical illusions in art. He gives us a delightful cameo of Giuseppe Arcimboldo whose paintings of faces made of fruit can be seen in Vienna, I think. Then its pretty well a leap straight to the 20th century with Dali, Escher and several living artists.I was never really a fan of Dali , an opinion based on the single big canvas to be seen in most galleries.But some of the Dalis in this book such as hand painted twin stereoscopic images are stunningly clever. And the other artists are often even more clever;just astoundingly so! Just what imagination and skills do you need to make sculptures of impossible 3 dimensional figures?Theres no attempt to give an exhaustive list of op artists and everyone will quibble about one or two artists covered, but the overall theme of the book is excellent.By the way, the book is outstanding value on Amazon and has a back-up web site which I must visit soon!Quibbles? Well some time serious artistic works are going to have to more than tip their caps to Magic Eye programmes for achieving what Psychology text books said was completely impossible: 3D images in colour from one single 'picture'.

Excellent

Masters of Deception is a description of the "great Hacker wars" between two rival hacker gangs Legion of Doom (LOD) and Masters of Deception (MOD). It sounds impressive, but it was just a couple of teenagers with a lot of knowledge about the phone system that started to annoy each other. Put it in that way, the Great Hacker War doesn't look that great, but the book is still good for understanding the hacker dynamics of the end of the 80s and beginning 90s.The book is written from the perspective of MOD and starts with the founding of MOD by Phiber Optik, Acid Phreak and Scorpion. They together explore the phone system. Phiber Optik was in the Legion of Doom group, but got kicked out and therefore they started the Masters of Deception hacker group. Though it started out as a joke, they grew quite fast and their hacks became quite sophisticated. Not only that, they were also getting more attention from the Secret Service, especially their pranks done to the LOD members who wanted to quit hacking and start a security company. Eventually... well... I'll leave what eventually happens to the reader.The book is well written and very easy to read. It took me a couple of days on and off reading. The tone of the book is a bit uncomfortable and strange as the authors do take a strong position for the hackers and view them as teenagers playing pranks with a bit too much knowledge. The book is shallow on technical knowledge however, which is most likely because the authors are professional authors and not professional hackers. I think I would have enjoyed it more with a bit more technical information. That said, I did enjoy the book and I think it describes an important timeframe in hacker history. Decided to go with 4 stars. Recommended if you are interested in hacking history, otherwise better not pick it up.

Wonderful book that shows art at its most playful and ingenious. You will be amazed at the artists included in this book and how the stretched the reaches of the imagination. From 3-D to art made with sugar,dirt and thread, this is a wild trip thru the creative minds of amazingly imaginative artists!Get this book, you won’t regret it!!!

Wow - I chose this based on the chorus of 5 star reviews, submitted by others who seem much more knowledgeable in this field than I, and I am NOT disappointed! This is a great looking book - big, hardcover, suitable for your coffee table. As stated in other reviews, the book has a nice sampling of well known artists, plus an array of fun illusions, and EXPLANATIONS, which is something I had not seen in other books of illusions. This is just a very nice book, meeting the hype, and worthy of your coffee table or anybody else's for that matter .. definitely gift-worthy.

Magnífico. Está en inglés, pero aquí lo importante son las imágenes y es una recopilación de ilusiones ópticas, trampantojos y demás que pensé que sería imposible reunir tantas, tan buenas y de tantos autores en un solo libro.

The media could not be loaded.  Por acaso o livro chegou em um dia em que minha filha recebia duas amigas. Todas têm cerca de 10 anos. Ficaram fascinadas com as obras que criam ilusões fantásticas. Muito bom o livro. Mexe com a imaginação de qualquer um. O livro retrata pinturas, mas também algumas esculturas. Vale a pena! Cuidado para não escolher a opção com capa dura!! Quando comprei o livro percebi que ao escolher capa dura muda-se a obra. Parece que tem um autor (ou livro) com o mesmo nome do das imagens “ilusionistas”. Vc percebe isso até nos comentários. O outro livro parece tratar de invasão hacker ou coisa parecida. Se vc quer o livro com obras de artistas da ilusão, escolha o de capa comum.

Eccezionale compendio di opere di autori che hanno fatto dell'illusione ottica un'arte. Magnifico per chi ama il genere. Grande formato, per apprezzare meglio i lavori

Relatado de forma sencilla y divertida. De repente empieza a ser aburrido por el detalle no tan técnico que puede ser atractivo para algunos lectores. Sin embargo, no deja de ser un buen libro que debe estar en la biblioteca de toda gente de sistemas.

Interesting book on illusion artists