Here, at last, is a book that does justice to this powerfully original artist’s visual invention. As beautiful and rigorous as an Escher work itself, The Magic of M. C. Escher is the classic study of a great artist.

For Escher, the skin of the visible world could be cut, folded, shaped and rearranged in marvellous ways. A superb draughtsman, Escher set himself the challenge of portraying otherworldly transformations of space within the borders of a sheet of paper. The resulting images, combining fantasy with explorations of geometry, have become the favourite artworks of tens of thousands of people around the world.

Escher’s works – from the great master prints to numerous drawings, accompanied by his eloquent words – are brilliantly arranged to form a cinematic journey of discovery. The destination is the magical world of the artist’s mind, an uncharted realm lush with exotic conceptions and inventions.