Anamorphosis is a projection of forms outside their visible limits. Viewed from a precise vantage point (the convergence point of a geometrical construction) a distorted image becomes recognizable, appearing to spring from the surface of the drawing or painting.

Anamorphosis has raised crucial questions for architectural representation since the seventh century when epistemological conditions for modern thought and architecture were first articulated. By manipulating the theory of perspective, anamorphosis revealed potential discontinuity between an object present to perception and its visual appearance, complicating the relationship between building and drawing, and between design and construction.

This annotated bibliography includes all known existing sources on anamorphosis, starting with Leonardo da Vinci's Notebooks and culminating with works of the twentieth-century Avant-Garde, such as Marcel Duchamp. The book makes special reference to questions about architectural representation, such as synthetic space as a possible alternative understanding of the relationship between architectural drawing and building, and provides extensive bibliographic descriptions of the primary sources for first editions and important subsequent editions or translations, including physical descriptions of the books and graphic materials.