A process for the recovery of (meth)acrylic acid without the use of a solvent, the process comprising: A. Cooling a gaseous reaction mixture comprising (meth)acrylic acid, the mixture obtained from the gas-phase oxidation of at least one (meth)acrylic acid precursor; B. Dehydrating the cooled gas mixture in a dehydration column to produce a dehydration column overhead stream and a dehydration column bottoms stream; C. At least partially condensing the dehydration column overhead stream to form a condensate, and returning at least a portion of the condensate to the dehydration column as reflux; D. Dividing the dehydration column bottoms stream into at least first and second dehydration column bottom streams, and passing at least a portion of one of the first and second dehydration column bottoms stream to a dehydration column heater/reboiler and passing at least a portion of the other dehydration column bottoms stream to the upper half of a second column; E. Subjecting the portion of the bottoms stream passed to the second column to distillation within the second column to produce at least a second column overhead stream and a second column bottoms stream comprising heavy components; F. At least partially condensing the second column overhead stream to form a second overhead condensate, and passing at least a portion of the second overhead condensate to the dehydration column heater/reboiler; and G. Passing at least a portion of the second column bottoms stream to a second column heater/reboiler, and H. Providing one or more inhibitors during the process, said inhibitors being selected from compounds that inhibit the reaction of acrylic acid and being provided in an amount sufficient to prevent or reduce the polymerization of acrylic acid. A. Cooling a gaseous reaction mixture comprising (meth)acrylic acid, the mixture obtained from the gas-phase oxidation of at least one (meth)acrylic acid precursor; B. Dehydrating the cooled gas mixture in a dehydration column to produce a dehydration column overhead stream and a dehydration column bottoms stream; C. At least partially condensing the dehydration column overhead stream to form a condensate, and returning at least a portion of the condensate to the dehydration column as reflux; D. Dividing the dehydration column bottoms stream into at least first and second dehydration column bottom streams, and passing at least a portion of one of the first and second dehydration column bottoms stream to a dehydration column heater/reboiler and passing at least a portion of the other dehydration column bottoms stream to the upper half of a second column; E. Subjecting the portion of the bottoms stream passed to the second column to distillation within the second column to produce at least a second column overhead stream and a second column bottoms stream comprising heavy components; F. At least partially condensing the second column overhead stream to form a second overhead condensate, and passing at least a portion of the second overhead condensate to the dehydration column heater/reboiler; and G. Passing at least a portion of the second column bottoms stream to a second column heater/reboiler, and H. Providing one or more inhibitors during the process, said inhibitors being selected from compounds that inhibit the reaction of acrylic acid and being provided in an amount sufficient to prevent or reduce the polymerization of acrylic acid.