This fairly compact book, it measures 22.5cmm x 18cm (8.75”x7”) is packed full if images. It covers the work of 81 different artists from the areas of painting, photography, film and video, sculpture, performance art and installation. Each artist is allotted four pages, has a brief introduction of one paragraph (printed in English, German and French), along with a thumb-nail photograph of the artist and a short list of selected exhibitions and bibliography. The pictures fill the pages, sometimes several to a page; in total there are over 500 illustrations almost entirely in colour. The book concludes with a glossary and brief biographical notes on the authors.

It covers well many known names including Jeff Koons, Damien Hurst, Luc Tuymans, John Currin, Peter Doig, Tracey Emin to mention a few, plus some less familiar, providing a very useful if brief summary of art today.

It should be noted that this special 25th anniversary edition is a scaled down reissue of “Art Now 137 Artists at the Rise of the New Millennium”, ISBN 382281444X; scaled down in dimensions and number of artists featured but otherwise identical. ( )