From sculpture to collage, 79 artists describe and showcase their encaustic art work in different mediums—a visual showcase of the finest contemporary examples of a 2,000-year-old art.

From beehive to hotplate to the artist's hand, encaustic art, also known as hot wax painting, has evolved as a versatile medium applied to almost every artistic style. A long-overdue look at a newly popular art form, this book explores the encaustic art of 79 North American artists, and how they use it to express their inner worlds and the world around them.

Eight chapters organize the artists by geographical region and focus on how the heated beeswax and resin material is used to create seductive, skin-like surfaces and rich, layered membranes. More than 2,000 years old, this cross-disciplinary art medium ranges from painting to sculpture, assemblage, collage, and printmaking and encourages risk-taking in a way that other materials do not. Its inherent contradictions--it can be hot or cold, malleable or solid, opaque or translucent, layered or thin, permanent or fragile--make it all the more fascinating.