Relativity, lithograph, 1953.

“Three gravitational forces act perpendicular to each other here. Three Earth surfaces intersect each other at right angles and on each of them people live. Two inhabitants of different worlds cannot walk, sit or stand on the same floor, because their notions of what is horizontal and what is vertical are not the same. But they can use the same staircase together. On the top staircase shown here, two people move next to each other in the same direction. Yet one descends and the other climbs up. Contact between them is impossible, because they live in different worlds and therefore cannot know of each other’s existence.” ~ M.C. Escher, Grafiek en Tekeningen.

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