Really well written, logical arguments, credible sources, well researched, from someone who understands the craft and has the intellectual power to make connections accross culural boundaries - every art historian should read this. Good balance of text and images, so nice to look at as well.

This is the extended edition of Hockney's investigations and includes the section on perspective and the differences between 'Eastern' and 'Western' representations of three dimensional space. Having seen the TV programme I was interested to read and study what Hockney had to say in more detail; the book did not disappoint. The illustrations are profuse and the reproduction is of good quality. The book is divided into three sections, the first being the visual evidence, the second the textual evidence and the third is the correspondence between Hockney and his various consultants and contributors. My only complaint is a small one and it is that the correspondence could be better cross-referenced with the visual section than is the case; the decision to cross-reference images mentioned (eg. see page 56) seems almost arbitrary. Hockney continues to examine, investigate and explore imagery and image making, putting him, in my view, in a different league to the Hirsts and Emins of the art world.