Simple case of the law of reflection where the mirror is flat. Reflections off flat mirrors create every-day optical illusions. The mirror appears to be a window to an ethereal world on its other side. However, every ray of light that appears to be coming from the other side of the mirror is in fact coming from the same side we are standing on, only bent at angles that we can calculate using the law of reflection. To make our anamorphic sculpture work with a cylindrical mirror, we have to imagine that the Lshaped membrane is sitting on the other side of the window the mirror appears to make. This is the same as imagining that the sculpture is sitting in the center of the cylinder. Let me explain further by referencing the drawing below. For every point P on this apparent sculpture inside the cylinder, we'll draw a straight line to the eye of the viewer at a point V. This line from P to V is the path that our eyes think a ray of light took. However, the light actually came from some point P' on our side of the mirror, hit the mirror at some angle, reflected off the mirror at that same angle, and then hit our eyes.