Banksy is considered the world’s greatest practitioner of street art at work today. His work has always implied political critiques – of inequality, injustice, discrimination, consumerism, pollution, and the establishment. But, Banksy is a ghost — no one knows his identity. He is an exemplary case of fame and notoriety built upon absence, anonymity, and the denial of one’s explicit contribution to the public debate if not in terms of creative activism.

Banksy’s relationship with the art market is also complex: at the same time mocking, distant, and hostile and yet all he does is based upon a marketing logic that has proven to be among the most effective ever attempted. In short, an apparent (or real) contradiction between adhesion to the market and ferocious criticism of the market itself.

This volume is published to coincide with a major traveling exhibition of over one hundred Banksy works, but it is sure to be a must have for art lovers and Banksy fans alike for years to come.