Covering fifteen years of the Mexican born but US resident artist's work, Edward Lucie-Smith's "Robert Marquez" is an attractive package. The fairly minimal but very accessible text catalogues chapter by chapter the chronological development of the artist's work, and explains the influences, especially personal influences, which affected Marquez's paintings. The final chapter discusses the artist's miniature illustrations for Dante's Divina Commedia.

Marquez work is finely executed; the human figure dominates his paintings, which are often subtlety surreal.

The book is superbly illustrated throughout in full colour in addition to thumbnail illustrations of all the pictures included in each chapter which appear at the beginning of each chapter. There are over 120 mostly full page illustrations, including a few double page spreads, plus the 21 Dante illustrations. The large slightly over square format of the book accommodates the paintings comfortably, and the overall layout is very pleasing. ( )