The Seduction of Curves

A lavishly illustrated book that explores the language of curves that spans the human body, science, engineering, and art

Curves are seductive. These smooth, organic lines and surfaces¿like those of the human body¿appeal to us in an instinctive, visceral way that straight lines or the perfect shapes of classical geometry never could. In this large-format book, lavishly illustrated in color throughout, Allan McRobie takes the reader on an alluring exploration of the beautiful curves that shape our world¿from our bodies to Salvador Dal¿ paintings and the space-time fabric of the universe itself.

The book focuses on seven curves¿the fold, cusp, swallowtail, and butterfly, plus the hyperbolic, elliptical, and parabolic ¿umbilics¿¿and describes the surprising origins of their taxonomy in the catastrophe theory of mathematician Ren¿hom. In an accessible discussion illustrated with many photographs of the human nude, McRobie introduces these curves and then describes t