Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities

by David Revere McFadden (Foreword), Linda Florio

Optical Delusions and Small Realities illuminates the phenomenal renaissance of interest among artists worldwide in constructing small-scale, hand-built depictions of artificial environments and alternative realities, either as sculpture or as subjects for photography and video.

The book features contemporary work by approximately 35 preeminent visual artists who have generated renewed interest in this art a diverse group of international practitioners, ranging from sculptors and painters to photographers and videographers. This fully illustrated catalogue will also feature artist biographies and artist statements, and include a curatorial essay by exhibition curator David Revere McFadden that traces the history of dioramas and visual illusions in the history of the visual arts to Louis Daguerre’s innovative dioramas of the early 1800s and provides an interpretive overview of work by all of the featured artists.

Genres: Art, Photography

272 pages, Hardcover

First published September 6, 2011

About the author

American museum curator

Reviews

[Shawn Marie Hardy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This amazing book is my number one favorite at the moment. Everything about it is wonderful, including the lenticular image on the cover (hardback). I can't stop looking at the beautiful dioramas and all those little people doing all kinds of crazy things. I find this the most inspirational art book I've had my hands on in ages.