This is a compendium of many artists, past and present, who have developed abstract and narrative animation over the past 80 years. It includes a complete sense of the history of the medium, and reviews the work of several animators from the 60s and 70s who were pushing the envelope at the time the book was published. The history is brief, covering the work of Fischinger, Lye, Ruttmann, Richter, Eggeling and Bute. The reviews of what were at the time Contemporary artists are also brief, but give a flavor of the variety in the medium. A bit dated with regard to its look at computer animation (but praiseworthy for its focus on mathematical rather than illusory applications of computer animation), this is still the best source book for experimental and abstract animation I have found.