This is a socio-cultural look at the world of contemporary art, which seeks to explain how it works at as a market, through the eyes of the artist, collector, critic and art student. It succeeds with a great deal of wry humour, shrewdness and respect. As the title implies, there are seven chapters, each exploring a different element of the art world. Included are the auction (Christie's in New York), the art school crit (CalArts in California, with Michael Asher), the art fair (Basle), the Turner Prize, the art magazine (ArtForum), the studio visit (Takashi Murakami), and the Venice Biennale. Thornton has unusually good access, and summarises her fly-on-the-wall approach extremely well. A remarkably good book, which would be as much of interest to outsiders and insiders.