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The Art of the Maze
One of the world's leading maze designers displays his most spectacular and complex mazes, and reveals their powerful psychological secrets, mathematical structures, and how to solve them quickly. Over 150 illustrations, including 100 color photos, cover Greek minotaurs, Roman mosaic labyrinths, medieval Christian pavement mazes, Amazon Indian myths, remote island tribal mazes, aerial shots of modern mazes, and hedge mazes you can build. "Explains the mystery of mazes, from the simplest to the most complex."-- Publisher's Weekly .
- GenresNonfictionArt
162 pages, Paperback
First published October 29, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 22, 2019
This is a very pretty book with lots of pictures of mazes and labyrinths from around the world. The accompanying text provides history and other details about the various locations, plus history of the development of mazes. The speculation about why people find mazes fascinating veered into the some questionable areas, but not so excessively to ruin the overall experience.
August 20, 2023
“Myths and legends ooze from every pore. Stories and anecdotes latch themselves like muscle tissue to the skeletal bones of stone, turf and hedge, bringing this art form to life as a vibrant part of mankind’s culture.”
Bloke knows his mazes.
Bloke knows his mazes.
June 15, 2019
Love labyrinths and maze, and as books on the subject go, this was a good one. Lots of wonderful photographs by Georg Gerster.
November 6, 2015
Despite the suggestion of its title, this is not a book dedicated solely to "the art of the maze" although a sizable portion is devoted to the designs of some of the world's most beautiful mazes. For those interested in mazes it is an excellent and informative book in many ways; however, it does have a few shortcomings.
The greatest of these shortcomings is the layout. Dozens of lovely large color photographs fill THE ART OF THE MAZE, but their placement is problematic. They sometimes appear pages before or after their discussion in the text, which can lead to frustrated page flipping if the reader wishes to see a depiction of something as it is being described. The sidebars containing valuable information occur haphazardly throughout the book, often popping up dead center in the text making them more of an interruption than an enrichment.
There is also added confusion due to the designation of labyrinths -- the maze's forerunner and ancestor -- as a type of maze. Early on the authors distinguish between a labyrinth, which has a single winding path to its center, and a maze, which has junctions and choices and is in essence a kind of puzzle to be solved. However, labyrinths and mazes are then treated as a single entity for the rest of the book. This can be aggravating for those readers who have studied labyrinths as a phenomenon unique from mazes.
If the reader can get past these sticking points, THE ART OF THE MAZE is a valuable book. It provides an excellent history of labyrinths in its opening chapter "Origins and History." Particularly enjoyable is the lengthy treatment of "The Man in the Maze" labyrinth motif found in the Tohono O'otam and Pima tribes of Arizona. The authors give keen insight into the early uses of labyrinths among past cultures. They also present the fascinating theory that labyrinths may actually be symbolic representations of mazes, which would make the maze far older than previously believed.
The second chapter "The Nature of Puzzlement" introduces the different types of mazes. It even tells how to solve the simplest maze design via the "hand-on-wall" method. A fair amount of history is included in this section as well.
The third chapter "Mazes in the Landscape" is undoubtedly what gave the book its name. It showcases the most famous, most beautiful, and most elaborate mazes in the world as well as the best examples of mazes for each medium from hedges to turf to wood and metal to stained glass. The incredible Alice-In-Wonderland Maze at Merritown House in Dorset, the "imprint" foot mazes at Gloucestershire and Bicton Park, and England's oldest hedge maze at Hampton Court Palace are among those featured. This section contains fantastic, full color, aerial photographs. "Mazes in the Landscape" is also the best laid out chapter, and almost all of its graphics line up with the text.
The fourth and final chapter "The Riddle of the Maze" is a wrap-up chapter on the maze's appeal, offering a few ideas as to why the maze has become a subject of renewed interest. Differing from the other sections, its focus is on the maze as an art form rather than a structure or pattern.
A glossary opens this book following the Duke of Marlborough's introductory letter. Included at the end are a gazetteer of mazes around the world sorted by country, a short bibliography for further reading, and a thorough index. As for the book itself, it is well bound for a paperback.
The greatest of these shortcomings is the layout. Dozens of lovely large color photographs fill THE ART OF THE MAZE, but their placement is problematic. They sometimes appear pages before or after their discussion in the text, which can lead to frustrated page flipping if the reader wishes to see a depiction of something as it is being described. The sidebars containing valuable information occur haphazardly throughout the book, often popping up dead center in the text making them more of an interruption than an enrichment.
There is also added confusion due to the designation of labyrinths -- the maze's forerunner and ancestor -- as a type of maze. Early on the authors distinguish between a labyrinth, which has a single winding path to its center, and a maze, which has junctions and choices and is in essence a kind of puzzle to be solved. However, labyrinths and mazes are then treated as a single entity for the rest of the book. This can be aggravating for those readers who have studied labyrinths as a phenomenon unique from mazes.
If the reader can get past these sticking points, THE ART OF THE MAZE is a valuable book. It provides an excellent history of labyrinths in its opening chapter "Origins and History." Particularly enjoyable is the lengthy treatment of "The Man in the Maze" labyrinth motif found in the Tohono O'otam and Pima tribes of Arizona. The authors give keen insight into the early uses of labyrinths among past cultures. They also present the fascinating theory that labyrinths may actually be symbolic representations of mazes, which would make the maze far older than previously believed.
The second chapter "The Nature of Puzzlement" introduces the different types of mazes. It even tells how to solve the simplest maze design via the "hand-on-wall" method. A fair amount of history is included in this section as well.
The third chapter "Mazes in the Landscape" is undoubtedly what gave the book its name. It showcases the most famous, most beautiful, and most elaborate mazes in the world as well as the best examples of mazes for each medium from hedges to turf to wood and metal to stained glass. The incredible Alice-In-Wonderland Maze at Merritown House in Dorset, the "imprint" foot mazes at Gloucestershire and Bicton Park, and England's oldest hedge maze at Hampton Court Palace are among those featured. This section contains fantastic, full color, aerial photographs. "Mazes in the Landscape" is also the best laid out chapter, and almost all of its graphics line up with the text.
The fourth and final chapter "The Riddle of the Maze" is a wrap-up chapter on the maze's appeal, offering a few ideas as to why the maze has become a subject of renewed interest. Differing from the other sections, its focus is on the maze as an art form rather than a structure or pattern.
A glossary opens this book following the Duke of Marlborough's introductory letter. Included at the end are a gazetteer of mazes around the world sorted by country, a short bibliography for further reading, and a thorough index. As for the book itself, it is well bound for a paperback.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews