本书利用四千年来，来自全球各地的艺术作品探讨了触摸在人类经验中的基本作用，并提供了新的观察方式。在一系列图文并茂的文章中，作者探索了解剖学和皮肤；大脑、手和创造力之间的关系；触摸、欲望和占有；意识形态的触摸；崇敬和偶像崇拜。最后一部分收集了过去和当代关于触摸的思考。

拉斐尔、米开朗基罗、伦勃朗、卡拉奇、霍加、透纳、罗丹、德加和科尔维茨的绘画、版画和雕塑作品，以及当代艺术家朱迪•芝加哥、弗兰克•奥尔巴赫、理查德•朗、查普曼兄弟和理查德•罗林斯的作品，都将得到探讨。

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

Drawing on works of art spanning four thousand years and from across the globe, this book explores the fundamental role of touch in human experience, and offers new ways of looking. In a series of lavishly illustrated essays, the authors explore anatomy and skin; the relationship between the brain, hand, and creativity; touch, desire and possession; ideological touch; reverence and iconoclasm. A final section collects a range of reflections, historic and contemporary, on touch.

Objects range from anonymous ancient Egyptian limestone sculpture, to medieval manuscripts and panel paintings, to devotional and spiritual objects from across the world, to love tokens and fede rings. Drawings, paintings, prints and sculpture by Raphael, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Carracci, Hogarth, Turner, Rodin, Degas, and Kollwitz are explored, along with work by contemporary artists Judy Chicago, Frank Auerbach, Richard Long, the Chapman Brothers, and Richard Rawlins.