Review: Paper patterns of complexity

Inspired by notions of symmetry in the work of mathematicians such as
L. C. Penrose and the nonrepresentational art of Islamic Spain, Martin
Escher ‘transformed the spare skeletal beauty of mathematical theory into
ornament of the highest order’. Now available in paperback, Doris Schattschneider’s
Visions of Symmetry (W. H. Freeman, pp 354, £19.95) will illuminate
and entertain a wide audience from mathematicians, chemists to people merely
fascinated by his work. As John Galloway wrote (Review, New Scientist,
2 March 1991): ‘Many books have been written about Escher’s art. None has
approached Visions of Symmetry for its scope, scale and sumptuousness. The
sheer beauty and ingenuity of the pictures keep you turning the pages as
though the book were a collection of detective stories whose plots are brilliantly
organised patterns.’