This deliberately concise history is something of a tour-de-force, intended to stimulate the expert as well as to guide the layman. Throughout, it is powered by the author's belief in art as a vital activity and therefore as something that - in words which open and close the book - 'has not ceased to be produced'. What is told is, in effect, the story of Western man's creative energy, constantly finding new ways to fill the world with non-natural objects.