Anne Neilson: Strokes of Compassion

The artwork reproductions are printed beautifully, and I found myself lingering on a few pages longer than the stories themselves. The essays from the other artists add a nice variety of voices too.

I wasn't expecting the stories about other artists to hit me as hard as the artwork did — the mix of paintings and personal essays makes it a slow, page-turning kind of read rather than something you rush through. I've already left it on the coffee table and caught two guests flipping through it.

I picked this up expecting mostly pretty pictures, but the stories behind each piece are what kept me turning pages. The section on how other artists responded to the earlier book genuinely surprised me. Ended up leaving it on my coffee table for guests to flip through.