The Mind's Eye: Collected Writings 1965-2009, By Bridget Riley

This appropriately handsome volume offers a wealth of insights into the inspirations and thinking of Britain's leading abstractionist. In a 1988 conversation, Riley reveals that she "did not intend to make more than one" of the black and white paintings that made her name.

They emerged following an affair when she felt "angry and hurt... I thought: 'I'll paint you a message so loud and clear you'll know exactly how I feel.'"

But in 1967, Riley shrugs off the suggestion that this phase of her work was aggressive: "I think of there being colossal energies involved." Her advice to young artists is to "look at the great painters... they've seen more clearly, experienced more deeply and are more explicit."