Touch is our first sense. Through touch we make art, stake a claim to what we own and those we love, and express our faith, beliefs, and anger. Touch is how we leave our mark and find our place in the world; touch is how we connect.

Drawing on artworks spanning four thousand years and stretching across the globe, this book offers new ways of looking at the fundamental role of touch in the human experience. In a series of essays, the authors explore anatomy and skin; the relationship between the brain, hand, and creativity; touch, desire, and possession; ideological touch; and reverence and iconoclasm. Nearly two hundred lavish illustrations accompany the text, including drawings, paintings, prints, and sculpture by Raphael, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Carracci, Hogarth, Turner, Rodin, Degas, and Kollwitz, along with work by contemporary artists Judy Chicago, Frank Auerbach, Richard Long, the Chapman Brothers, and Richard Rawlins. The events of 2020 have made us newly alive to the preciousness and the dangers of touch, making this a particularly timely exploration of our most fundamental sense.