'A rectangular inner courtyard is bounded by a building that is roofed in by a never-ending stairway. The inhabitants of these living quarters would appear to be monks, adherents of some unknown sect. Perhaps it is their ritual duty to climb those stairs for a few hours each day. It would seem that when they get tired they are allowed to turn about and go downstairs instead of up. Yet both directions, though not devoid of significance, are equally futile. Two recalcitrant individuals refuse, for the time being, to take any part in this exercise. They have no use for it at all, but no doubt sooner or later they will be made to see the error of their nonconformity.' (The artist, in: M.C. Escher: The Graphic Work, Cologne, 1992, p. 15).

In this celebrated image M. C. Escher drew inspiration from contemporary mathematics and philosophy. The idea for a continuous flight of stairs was based on a drawing by Sir Roger Penrose published in the February 1958 issue of The British Journal of Psychology, while it’s ontological implications find parallels in the existential writings of Albert Camus. Escher was in fact working of Ascending and Descending on the day that Camus died in a car crash in 1960. In a letter to his son George after the crash, Escher wrote that Camus would have appreciated the ‘absurdity’ of his new print:

`We imagine that we climb—each step about 20 cm high, terribly tiring—and what do we gain from it? Nothing. Descending, rolling downwards deliciously, doesn't work for us either’ (The artist, in: Wim Hazeu, M.C. Escher, Een biografie, Meulenhoff, 1998, p. 414).