Secret Paintings Magically Appear in Old Books

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If you haven’t yet seen these secret fore-edge paintings—paintings that appear on the side of the book opposite the spine when you squish the pages into a slanted line—they’re well worth a look.

Both Flavorwire and io9 have posts with various photos, animations, and videos.

Some of the paintings are thematically fitting (a depiction of Adam and Eve on a copy of the Bible) while others are more puzzling (an image of the London Bridge on Paradise Lost), but they’re all stunning.


Lauren O'Neal is an MFA student at San Francisco State University. Her writing has appeared in publications like Slate, The New Inquiry, and The Hairpin. You can follow her on Twitter at @laureneoneal. More from this author →