Art Is Magic is a reflective look at the oeuvre of Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller, one of Britain’s most distinctive contemporary artists. It’s a pleasingly thorough collection of Deller’s work and comes accompanied by biography and analysis from him, including insightful conversations with Mary Beard and Alan Kane.

The work is consistently striking, charting the course of Deller’s career from early exhibition posters he designed at college, up until his present work, as well as a selection of images that have stuck with him through his life, such as an iconic photograph of Little Richard. 

Deller’s words are shot through with self-deprecation and wry humour, and the tone is set in the introductory chapter when he explains that he finds “the act of writing mortifying, in the truest sense. When I have to do it, I quite literally feel as though I am slowly dying. I’d like to thank my editor… for keeping me alive in this process.” He then lists a number of alternative working titles he had for Art Is Magic – including That’s Not Art, which has been said to him a few times during his career. This book firmly proves those people wrong.