Perhaps that is also why Ways of Seeing remains such an influential book to this day. It teaches us to see, to read the image and find the driving forces of class, consumption and gender that build them in a straightforward, accessible way. It finds a way to relate them to our knowledge and life, whether we are looking at oil portraits from long ago merchants, a luxurious still life or an ad in a magazine. Ultimately, it shows us that the artworld exists and if moulded within the real world, and one cannot exist without the other - they are not universes apart and as such, they can be understood, learnt and have an impact on our way of thinking and seeing the history of humanity.