Barry Schwabsky's introductory text offers a critical survey of the evolution of painting since the late 1950's Modernist painting, and introduces some of the trends, methods and artists included in the book.
In the following and largest section of the book (320 pages and 480 illustrations), the 114 artists are presented in an A to Z order. Some artists are presented on 2 pages, some on 4 pages. 3 to 7 images are reproduced for each artist, along with a 500 word text written by an author specialist of the artist's work. The texts on each artist are short 500 word surveys of their work, and aim at introducing the methods and subject matter at stake in their recent works. A selected list of exhibitions and bibliography also complements the reproductions and text on each artist.