What the Butler Saw contains essays and interviews by Stuart Morgan, one of Britain's leading art critics. Opening with a group of essays on American artists such as Robert Smithson, Alice Aycock, Dennis Oppenheim and William Wegman, the collection moves on to European art of the eighties, with particular reference to art in Britain and the legacy of conceptual art.

From interviews with figures as diverse as Joseph Beuys, Louise Bourgeois, Christian Boltanski, Stephen Campbell and Richard Prince, the essays proceed to younger artists: Steven Pippin, Rachel Whiteread, Miroslaw Balka and, in a previously unpublished text, Damien Hirst. The selection also includes the performance art of Anthony Howell, the cartoons of Glen Baxter, and the self-exposure of Robert Mapplethorpe, Jeff Koons and Madonna.