Illusion, the second issue of 1605 Magazine, looks beyond what is immediately visible. Its theme is the uncertainty between what we see and how we interpret it: the meeting of light and shadow, physical presence and suggestion. Rather than resolve that uncertainty, the issue explores how artists and designers use it as a starting point for their work.

Across interviews, portfolios and editorial selections, photography, painting, architecture and design offer different approaches to perception. Contributors include Kristian Schuller, Bruno V. Roels, Mona Kuhn, Vincent Van Duysen, Sabine Marcelis and Levi van Veluw, alongside Sayuri Ichida, Michael Oliver Love, Norm Architects and others. Their inclusion brings a range of creative practices into conversation around the same theme.

In her conversation with Rolien Zonneveld, Peggy Kuiper discusses colour as a way of expressing emotion and memory. Her approach to painting gives the theme a personal dimension: what a picture communicates can depend as much on feeling as on its subject. Anna Muller’s portfolio offers another route into Illusion, using playful composition and reassembled visual fragments to shift the meaning of familiar images.

Together, these contributions invite a slower kind of looking, attentive to what is suggested as well as what is shown. Illusion leaves space for the reader’s own associations and interpretations. Published in an edition of 750 copies, it continues the magazine’s exploration of creative work through both extended reading and visual portfolios.