A vivid and powerfully-argued account of 400 years of sculpture from one of the UK’s most brilliant young critics Just occasionally. . . . . a book comes along that is so intelligent and illuminating that one wants to cry out Hallelujah. This is one of them, Richard Gott, INDEPENDENT. This dazzling cultural history, delving back through the centuries, sets out to answer a baffling question how has sculpture, for so long regarded as a more limited art, come to take a leading role today? From the Renaissance to the nineteenth century, sculpture was painting’s poor relation. Yet from the start of the twentieth century, sculpture increasingly took centre the Turner Prize is usually won by a sculptor. Why is this? What has happened? Illustrated throughout, packed with fascincating characters and bizarre incidents as well as illuminating examples and heated arguments, THE WORLD AS A SCULPTURE is a vivid and highly original guide to the art of past and present.