Surreal Textbook Illustrations: Karl Nicholason Creates Bizarre Drawings For 1970s School Books (PHOTOS)

Remember flipping through your old science and math textbooks and stumbling upon some truly bizarre illustrations?We have artist Karl Nicholason to thank for some of these awe-inspiring pictures, hidden in the depths of biology and psychology books of yore. He was a primary illustrator for Communications Research Machines (CRM), a distributor of textbooks in the late 1960s and early '70s.

Lucky for us, he recently contacted 50 Watts to showcase his still-astonishing textbook art, filled with images of floating busts and dreamy, disproportionate arrangements. We've been strolling down academic memory lane ever since we came across his work, remembering the gorgeous designs that made "Id" and "Ego" appear like allegorical figures in a Rene Magritte painting.

Scroll through the slideshow below for a closer look at Nicholason's illustrations (more of which you can see here), accompanied by captions by the artist himself. Let us know what you think of his clever designs in the comments section.

h/t 50 Watts