Art books that are generous with pictures of paintings, photographs, sculptures and other work come in two essential categories. There's the lavish coffee-table production, thick on images and frequently light on words. Topics vary, of course, from an epoch to a movement to an individual artist to a theme. Then, there's the tome or textbook, sometimes covering the entire history of art and in other instances a topic like American or English painting. Some of these tend to plod, like "Janson's History of Art," and others are captivating, like the late E.H. Gombrich's "Story of Art," which the noted British sculptor Antony Gormley has cited as one of his inspirations for becoming an artist.

Maybe it's inevitable that Dorling Kindersley, better known as DK — the longtime publisher of visually seductive books on everything from dinosaurs to travel — would come up with a new variety of volume on the sweep of art history. In fact it's simply titled "Art," though the subtitle conveys a bit more: "Over 2,500 Works From Cave to Contemporary" (612 pages; $50).

The sharpness of the reproductions is impressive, whether in a stately Assyrian wall relief in limestone from the 7th century B.C. ("Ashurnasirpal II at a Lion Hunt") or a vivid skull painting by Georgia O'Keeffe from 1931 ("Red, White and Blue"). Just as vital is the clarity of categories, in both the timelines and the pages that bring to life movements, styles or artists.

An intelligent, massive anthology like this needs a sure hand, creating a balance between the big picture and the particulars. Ian Chilvers, the chief consultant for "Art," and 11 specialists and several other contributors have managed to create precise, readable text that distills a lot of sophisticated scholarship into succinct prose.

Major movements in art are presented with razor-sharp clarity. Take the Baroque, with its multiple painting styles in the service of Christian drama. First, there's a timeline of images, extending from 1601 to 1668, and from Caravaggio to Vermeer. And when you get to the likes of great pictures by Velazquez, Rembrandt or Vermeer, there are "closer looks" at brushwork, structure and details that reveal theme, history and profound dimensions of an artist's vision.

The book is just as good with in-depth looks at, say, Warhol or Francis Bacon. It even offers a useful, albeit brief, account of art in the first decade of the 21st century, with intelligent nods to emerging African and Chinese artists. No survey this sprawling is perfect, though, and for some inexplicable reason — could it be bias against the West Coast? — it leaves out three artists who began their careers in Los Angeles and become major figures in the second half of the 20th century: Robert Irwin and James Turrell, progenitors of "light and space art," and Edward Ruscha, who emerged as a pop artist and had a major impact on photography as well as painting. If there's a second edition of "Art," this is one fix that should be made to this rather marvelous book.

The exhibition catalog is another category of art book, though frankly catalogs have become so large of late that the divide between them is often hopelessly blurred. A timely example is "In Nature's Temple: The Life and Art of William Wendt" (317 pages; $60; $30, paperback), co-published by the Irvine Museum and the Laguna Art Museum to coincide with the current exhibition of his work at Laguna. Wendt's major genre is the landscape. He was part of a groundswell of early 20th-century artists who migrated to Southern California to paint its natural bounty.

Maurice Braun, Alfred Mitchell and Charles Reiffel were also leading figures in this movement. Wendt, from Germany, trained in Chicago and had residences in Los Angeles (1906) and Laguna Beach (1918). He had a marvelous eye for color and a seductive style of brushwork that looked just as gracefully applied to land, water or sky.

The book is dense with strong paintings and contains a terrific detailed chronology of his life. The essays do a good job of evoking the early 20th-century Southern California art world and his place in it, though the writing isn't nearly as dynamic as the paintings themselves.

Altered nature is Jo Whaley's passion, in scenes constructed and photographed in her studio. She explores the ways that pictures can create alternate realities, enchanted and poetic ones. "The Theater of Insects" (Chronicle Books; 128 pages; $22.95) is the photographer's new book, which coincides with an exhibition traveling to six venues.

Moths, butterflies and other small creatures are on display in places that mingle cardboard, mesh, faded photographs and less identifiable backdrops. All seem part of an intimate lushly colored universe that evokes the diorama, the Victorian album, the natural history museum and Joseph Cornell's boxes.

To find out more about Robert L. Pincus and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.