《越界中国先锋艺术(1979-2004)》在写作体例上与以往的艺术史写作也有所不同。简洁的文字描述与图片结合，这种“文图写作”的方式将视觉图像放置于艺术史证据的位置。同时，作者借鉴了新闻写作的方式，设立了相关连接和相关作品的介绍，使每一个艺术成果相互关联，并被置于历史的进程之中，使写作本身成了一种艺术。
《越界中国先锋艺术(1979-2004)》从作品生成的历史前提出发去理解艺术和说明艺术，以宏观的把握和微观的分析，史与论穿插交织，是一部帮助我们了解中国当代艺术的通俗读物。在阅读此书的过程中，我们会时时感到历史的、文化的、社会的和传统的力量对中国当代艺术的作用。作者对艺术现象和艺术品的分析，让读者不乏新鲜之感。因为鲁虹并不是在还原艺术史，而是带着质疑来追问艺术。从这个意义上说，追问艺术和重返历史同样令人惊喜！

In the early 1990s, the idea of contemporary art in China simply did not compute to a foreign audience. But in 1993, ten contemporary Chinese artists debuted at the 48th Venice Biennale. They were immediately hailed as progenitors of a Chinese "avant-garde." Their brightly colored, Pop Art-inspired paintings played with socialist motifs, parodied Mao, and gave a visual expression to the feelings of disaffected Chinese youth. They were everything western audiences expected of contemporary art from the People's Republic of China. But a number of critics were rather guarded in their opinions. Was this another flash-in-the-pan phenomenon just as Soviet art had been in the 1980s? Could a Chinese avant-garde maintain a distinct identity of its own and shake off its penchant for imitation? The answer is clearly "yes". The emergence of a market for their art transformed the lives of these avant-garde pioneers from rags to riches, from outcast to hero, from social pariah to cutting-edge cool in a Chinese society adapting to a new era. They did not change but China has changed.
The ideology they once had to fight now propagates a cultural climate of laissez-faire that is tantamount to encouragement. Set against China's official program of modernization, "Nine Lives" paints a compelling picture of artists working beyond the pale of official culture, who started a new cultural revolution that is sweeping China today.

《艺术的故事》概括地叙述了从最早的洞窟绘画到当今的实验艺术的发展历程，以阐明艺术史是“各种传统不断迂回、不断改变的历史，每一件作品在这历史中都既回顾过去又导向未来。
继1997年三联版《艺术的故事》后，英国费顿出版社授权广西美术出版社独家出版，也是国内唯一合法授权的版本。