The book was widely reviewed and its reception was very positive. Alan L. Mackay in a full-page review for Nature wrote: "This book contains very many colour reproductions of the periodic drawings and analyses the 1941–42 notebooks which show Escher's development [...] Taking Doris Schattschneider's beautiful volume with earlier books, especially that by Bruno Ernst, documentation of Escher's life, intellectual development and corpus must now be almost complete." Roger Goodwin writing in The British Journal of Aesthetics said "This book, the product of more than fifteen years of research by its mathematician author, provides the definitive account of how Escher produced his renowned interlocking drawings, based on the regular division of the plane." Michele Emmer reviewing the book in Leonardo wrote: "Escher's theory, recorded in the notebooks of 1941–1942, has never been completely published before. All the 150 color drawings of interlocking patterns that he produced from 1937 to 1941 are reproduced in the book. It is, of course, the most essential part of the volume." Marjorie Senechal wrote the entry for Mathematical Reviews : "The development of Escher's ideas is carefully traced, the influence of his work on others, and vice versa, is discussed, and all of the notebook drawings are presented in full color. Doris Schattschneider has written the Escher book for mathematicians."