Who would ever have guessed that a shy, unassuming English nun would have risen to become one of the world's most respected and widely-read art commentators? Sister Wendy Beckett has exhibited a special knack, as evidenced in Sister Wendy's American Collection, for unfolding the joys of art to an ever-growing readership, even those, as she has said, "for whom this is a world closed."

In this book, she visits six of America´s most pretigious museums: The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City), the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, Massachusetts), the Art Institute of Chicago, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth, Texas) and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In each, Sister Wendy chooses a wide variety of art -paintings, sculpture, porcelain figures- and draws attention to the small details of the work, revealing hidden meanings and symbolism. She relates the background of the artist and briefly explains the techniques and the histories behind each work, with humor and insight.

The books includes over 250 full-color illustrations.