Jeremy Deller's latest art exhibition is not an art exhibition. If that sounds confusing, it is because his new installation English Magic is a collaborative venture produced by people from many different walks of life, among them prisoners and steel band players, craftsmen and video technicians, painters and archaeologists.

All contribute to the finished product while Deller waves his magic wand and makes it happen. It is the opposite of the conventional art show when one man - it usually is a man - signs off his work with a flourish.

"Most artists have help," Deller tells me. "It's not a new thing. I just talk about it more. I have no technical talent from what I can work out, so I need help."

Famously, Rembrandt had a legion of assistants and, in recent years, controversy has raged about what constitutes a painting by the maestro if he only added the finishing touches to it.

But Deller, by his own admission, says that he can't really paint or draw and he studied art history at university rather than fine art. Deller likens his role to that of a film director and while it does seem strange to attend an art show which has not been executed by the "artist" himself, perhaps this is an apt way to describe him.

Even so, Deller is flavour of every month at present. He won the Turner Prize in 2004 and a retrospective of his work was held at the Hayward Gallery in 2012. He went on to represent Britain at the Venice Biennale last year and the trimmed-down version of that show is on at London's William Morris Gallery and will then tour Britain until early next year.

English Magic is pulling in the crowds - the gallery says that Deller's "hard core" following means he has probably attracted even more visitors than when they had Grayson Perry there in 2012.

Deller's knack for capturing the spirit of the times may be one reason for this.

The main room reveals a large mural of William Morris emerging from Venice's lagoon while holding Roman Abramovich's shark-like super yacht aloft. The painting, which doesn't fail to make visitors smile, is based on a true story. In 2011 the art-dabbling Russian oligarch parked his boat in front of the Giardini park where the Venice Biennale is held, thus restricting both access and the view. The piece certainly makes for a nice revenge fantasy.

"It's meant to be funny," Deller explains. "It's a symbolic mythological painting, a statement about the reality of the art world - or one aspect of it. As a painting, though, it's about the power of ideas over money or at least short-term money making."

There is an additional irony because the oligarchs are the ones with the cash to buy the art on display at the Biennale.

On the opposite wall, there is a no less pertinent mural (pictured above) showing the banks in the tax haven of Jersey being reduced to cinders. The year is 2017 and the populace has had enough of their secretive goings-on.

Deller's style has been described as "social surrealism" due to its fusion of reality and fantasy. This is evident again in a retribution-themed video of a chunky Range Rover in the grip of a pick-up claw. The car is twirled around helplessly to the sound of a jaunty calypso number. Deller is a cyclist and he has a thing about these vehicles, which he calls "bullies."

An upbeat outcome of this, the video reveals, is that children are now free to play and express themselves rather than being cocooned in a tank-like 4x4 which only affords spurious protection.

Drawings by prisoners, many of whom are ex-servicemen, include a pockmarked Basra, a sensitive portrait of Reginald Keys - whose son was killed in Iraq - and a boy solider in Calvin Klein pants who cowers under his bed from mortar attack.

The naive style of the latter increases its poignancy.

Deller's involvement with the gallery, which was William Morris's childhood home, apparently goes way back to when the place had funding difficulties and was in danger of being shut down. Now - touch everything - it is safe until 2016.

Morris, the arts and crafts designer and social campaigner, believed that if people became alienated from the art-making process, they suffered.

Deller too seems to feel that art can change the world for the better and influence opinion. "It can add to a debate and give a different approach to a problem or an issue," he stresses.

Thus English Magic is not about one artist's ego, it is an exhibition that hands back the power to the people.

Even if the jury is still out on what defines art, the humour and heart inherent in Deller's brand of magic certainly casts a spell.

Jeremy Deller: English Magic runs at the William Morris Gallery, Forest Rd, London E17 until March 30, opening times: (020) 8496-4390, then tours to Bristol and Margate.