The book was produced to accompany an exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, 1999-2000, showcasing the contemporary American realist drawings assembled by the collectors Jalane and Richard Davidson over the last twenty five years.

Following the short introduction, the main essay discusses the collection as well as the place or realist drawing in today's art environment. It first identifies what is meant by realism in this context, explaining that the Davidsons who amassed the collection had little interest in photo-realism; they preferred to see the individual handwriting of the artist evident in the work. As is apparent from the drawings contained here this clearly encompasses a wide scope. Following the discussion of realist drawing the essay proceeds to consider more specifically the work in the collection, by genre (still-life, portrait) and by some of the individual artists. The essay along with the comprehensive notes runs to page 24. The plates occupy pages 25 through 116; the book concludes with a Checklist of the Exhibition and an Index of Artists' Names.

In addition to over a dozen black and white pictures illustrating the text, there are 126 drawings illustrated, all including the back and white drawings reproduced in full colour, a device which avoids any unnatural starkness to the monochrome images. The Plates are shown one or two to a page. The work of around 75 artists is represented, and the list includes William Bailey, Jack Beal, Rackstraw Downes, Janet Fish, Jane Freilicher, Sidney Goodman, Wolf Kahn, Alex Katz, Alfred Leslie, Michael Mazur, Catherine Murphy, Alice Neal, Philip Pearlstein, Joseph Raffael and Neil Welliver.

This is a very appealing book; the drawings cover a wide range, from the incredibly meticulous to the very sketchy, in a wide variety of media and an equally wide range of subject matter, and while perhaps the majority are monochrome there are almost as many colour drawings too. ( )