Art books do receive awards — but most of us have never heard of them. Even the most popular of art titles is niche; they’re sold mainly in gallery shops, snooty boutiques and, as art historian Katy Hessel puts it, “on the third floor of the bookshop”.
So it’s a very big deal that recently her own title, The Story of Art Without Men, won the very mainstream Waterstones Book of the Year — automatically claiming a prominent place on half the high streets of Britain. Previous winners include Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell, and The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman.
