Metamorphosis: The Ultimate Spot-the-Difference Book

by Mike Wilks

A meditation on the nature of change and visual perception includes twelve richly surreal, provocative, philosophical life-cycle paintings, matched on a facing page with a nearly identical, electronically altered version of the image.

Genres: Art

72 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Mike Wilks (British, b. 1947) began his artistic career at age thirteen when he won a scholarship to art school. He ran a successful graphic design business for five years before he sold it and began writing and illustrating books in 1975. He rocketed to fame following publication of The Ultimate Alphabet in 1986; the puzzle book sold 750,000 copies worldwide. After eight illustrated books, he established himself as a novelist with The Mirrorscape Trilogy, a fantasy adventure series.

The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and many private collections have acquired Wilks’s drawings and paintings. Wilks lives in London.

Reviews

[Yousseif Abdellatif · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honest take: Metamorphosis: The Ultimate Spot-the-Difference Book is better in theory than in practice. Mike Wilks has a great setup and some sharp lines, but the follow-through is shaky and the ending left me shrugging. Still, I never hated reading it. Fine for a casual weekend read, not one I'd push on friends.

[Joy Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mix of Bosch and Dali. Interesting but strange. Was a little hard on my eyes, so that is the only reason I dated it 3 stars. Frankly, I much prefer Bev Doolittle's type of art.

[Danielle Katz · Rating 2.5 out of 5]

To me, it’s an art book, with a sprinkling of book excerpts.
Fun. The imagery is bizarre and dark and I wouldn’t hang it in my house but I enjoyed it.