Grayson Perry's book will overturn everything you thought you knew about "art"

Now Grayson Perry is a fully paid-up member of the art establishment, he wants to show that any of us can appreciate art (after all, there is a reason he's called this book Playing to the Gallery and not Sucking Up to the Academic Elite). This funny, personal journey through the art world answers the basic questions that might occur to us in an art gallery but that we're too embarrassed to ask. Questions such as: What is "good" or "bad" art--and does it even matter? Is art still capable of...

The vacant plinth in the north-west corner of London's Trafalgar Square has provoked controversy for generations. Originally intended to hold an equestrian statue of William IV, it remained empty because of a lack of funds. For a century and half, debate over the plinth's fate raged until 1998, when it was decided to use the spot as a site of temporary commissions of contemporary art by leading artists.
A marble statue of a heavily pregnant disabled artist, a scale model of Nelson's HMS Victory with African print sails inside a huge bottle and a giant cockerel in striking blue are just...