Optometry - by Xiang Yata (Paperback)

About the Book

In Optometry, a woman's visit to the optometrist catapults her through a multi-medium journey in this kaleidoscopic, experimental full-color comic.

Book Synopsis

Xiang Yata's OPTOMETRY is a kaleidoscopic skydive through the many ways we perceive ourselves, told in full color and through a myriad of different styles.

In Optometry, a girl goes to an optical shop for a pair of glasses. As the eye doctor calibrates the optometry machine to investigate the faults and fractures in her eyes, she is transported to a new world, a place full of overlapping images, dots, curves, houses, and light reflections.

The girl must navigate through the various unique planes within optometry world, confronting endless labyrinths, exploding worlds, and multiple versions of herself to find her way back to reality before she becomes lost forever in a daze.

This work also features a bespoke interview with the writer at then end of the book, delving deeper into the craft, influences, and life behind their work.

Artist Xiang Yata takes readers on an unforgettable graphic journey, showing how thought patterns branch out through multiple art forms, including sketching, photography, and graphic design to investigate the myriad ways we perceive ourselves.

This hefty graphic novel is Alice in Wonderland for a a new generation that is inundated with art and imagery, asking themselves where they fit into the visual landscape of the world.

Review Quotes

"With a remarkable depth of style, Xiang Yata collapses the distinction between the observer and the observed, creating an imaginative world of infinite possibility. Optometry is a celebration of visual storytelling, reminding the reader that when you lose your form all possible forms reveal themselves."

-Jesse Jacobs, author of Honeymoon Safari

"Ocularly rich, minimal, and hypnotic, Xiang Yata's Optometry has comic symmetry of verdant beauty and field of perspective and depth. It's super scrollable and page-turnable. It is a hyper magnetic optical world that make you feel seen in unexpected and viridescent ways. What a lush creature, this book!"

- Vi Khi Nao, author of Fish in Exile

"A spiritual journey of enlightenment, written without words. A glimpse through other dimensions of universe, presented by colors and shapes. An unconscious experience triggered by optometry, and back to real world like waking up from a dream. The beauty of chaos can't be expressed by words. Will be a little pity if anyone missed the wonderful world inside this book."

- Wang XX, cartoonist behind Seal Comics & Think I've Still Got It!

"The optometrist Xiang Yata keeps turning over the limited stage like origami in new ways. She is constantly calibrating the reader's gaze by experimenting with lots of materials. Waking up on the grass, I thought that maybe that clear world didn't exist. Might as well drop the trail and settle for this kaleidoscope of a moment. Let the writing on the optometric sheet become ants, climbing the back of the hand, and then disappearing into the grass."

- Woshibai, cartoonist behind 20KM/H