An image projection apparatus is provided, which includes an illumination unit which generates illumination light, a first prism which receives the illumination light from the illumination unit and performs total reflection of the illumination light, a reflection mirror which receives the illumination light from the first prism and reflects the illumination light, an image forming unit which forms an image from the illumination light that is reflected from the reflection mirror, and a second prism which performs total reflection of the image that is formed by the image forming unit toward a screen.