Paul Wood's Conceptual Art is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand exactly how and why exhibitions of contemporary art have come to include anything and everything—from pickled sharks to mass-produced toilets, piles of rubbish to multi-screen videos. Wood's text is coherent, precisely argued, and jargon-free: it provides a concise introduction to the important figures of a movement that changed the practice of modern art forever.

"Conceptual art" commonly refers to work that conveys an idea or a concept in a manner that need not involve the creation or display of a traditional art object. Like Pop art, Abstract Expressionism, and Minimalism, Conceptual art was an historical form of avant-garde practice that rose to prominence in the postwar era and continues to exert an influence over visual art.

Conceptual Art offers an easy-to-digest historical overview of the Conceptual art movement's development, rise to prominence, and legacy. Artists and art collectives discussed in the book include Art & Language, Arte Povera, John Baldessari, Joseph Beuys, Victor Burgin, Marcel Duchamp, Fluxus, Joseph Kosuth, Richard Long, Nam June Paik, the Situationists, and Lawrence Wiener.