Historical information

Boyd designed the exhibition for the opening of the Australian Chancery in Washington DC held in June 1969. He designed six cylindrical clear acrylic display cases. One of these exhibits used an anamorphic optical illusion, using compressed images which had normal proportions when viewed through a lens of the half-cylindrical display cases. These bookends were designed as a small scale model for the Chancery exhibition. Placing the disc (item F158) underneath the adjacent two half-cylindrical bookends demonstrates how the bookends behave as a lens.

Physical description

Two half cylindrical acrylic prisms