Realism and thus Exactitude has played an important role in art history ever since the discovery of perspective. Here, John Russell Taylor charts the artists' endeavour to re-create the smallest detail, dating back to centuries before photography to the present day.

This book brims with works by contemporary artists working in a figurative, hyperrealist style called 'Exactitude'. Such works show wide diversity - including still lifes, extreme close-ups, large-scale cityscapes, landscapes and commercial packaging.

Among the artists included are Pedro Campos, Clive Head, Ben Johnson, David Ligare, Cynthia Poole, John Salt, Cesar Santander, Ben Schonzeit and Tjalf Sparnaay, who come from all around the world, but are united here by their meticulous approach to their work, whether depicting, among many different subjects, American diners, book spines, portraits or car engines.