I have read the 2016 version.
Summary
At first glance, the title will have suggested that this book will highlight visualisations as a form of visual art. However, that is not the main bulk of the book. I am surprised to find the book to be about visualising descriptive statistics, time series, correlation, and regression, in addition to the discussions on maps and providing inspirational vizzes. The truthfulness of a viz is in the data after all.
Things I like
1. Discussion on topics in mathematics. As mentioned, the book goes into addressing how to visualise topics in statistics. Such a discussion is not often seen in other books I have read so far, although I do not profess to be a library in data visualisation books. It is not only a refreshing take on data viz, but it also takes visualising data to a higher level. It takes readers from descriptive analytics to diagnostic analytics.
2. Inspirational vizzes. This book contains fully coloured and a few full-page spread of data vizzes. Most of these vizzes are quite inspiring if not used to present a negative point, and they are also not commonly seen. Perhaps, it is due to the author's professional background as a data journalist.
Final Verdict: Truthfully, I have come for the art, but then I have decided to stay for the fundamental course on visualising statistics.