Upside Downside Up

When I first met Puzzle Master Scott Kim, back in the early '80's, I was as fascinated by his art as he was with my forays into game design. Partly because my wife, Rocky, was playing with calligraphy, and partly because he was doing something so remarkably playful, Scott's mathematical art became a source of much amazement around our Palo Alto household. The "Tree Inversion" illustrated here is one of many examples of his remarkably playful art that can be found on his online Inversions gallery.

It turns out that Scott's work belongs to a classic form of art play called "Ambigrams." Illustrated here is a perhaps more recognizable upsidownable visual pun from a collection of reversible matchbox art.