Includes bibliographical references and index.

Ch. 1. Places: sites and settings. Rosalie Gascoigne: the poetry of the commonplace ; Glenn Murcutt: touching the land lightly ; Banduk Marika: a contemporary vision of tradition ; Philip Cox: expressions of space and place ; Colin Lanceley: connecting objects and places ; Mary Eagle: sites for making meanings -- Ch. 2. People: characters and communities. Albert Tucker: responding to lived experience ; Jenny Watson: the reality of personal experience ; Vivienne Binns: getting in touch with the artist within ; David Humphries: the power of public art ; James Mollison: introducting people to art ; Daniel Thomas: art as a way of life -- Ch. 3. Stories: myth and reality. Bernard Smith: advocating an independent tradition ; Trevor Nicholls: wrestling with spirits of the past and present ; John McDonald: personal and public response ; Hossein Valamanesh: a personal dialogue with materials and ideas ; Bonita Ely: the fiction of tradition ; Ann Stephen: reading visual culture -- Ch. 4. Images: form and content. Robert Klippel: investigating the language of forms ; John Olsen: seeing life as it is felt ; John Coburn: the rich simplicity of form ; Elwyn Lynn: critical responses in paint and print ; Lesley Dumbrell: structuring personal responses -- Ch. 5. Issues: actions and reactions. Terry Smith: art as social engagement ; Fiona Foley: reasserting cultural independence ; Mike Parr: the self as a site for art action ; David Bromfield: critical response as a resistant practice ; Ian Howard: the critical image ; Ruth Waller: responding, researching and revealing new insights ; Martin Sharp: popular art as cultural commentary -- Ch. 6. Ideas: messages and media. Julie Ewington: challenging theory and practice ; Stelarc: the obsolete body ; Phillip George: making marks and meanings ; Jill Scott: personal interaction with art and technology ; Peter Callas: thinking in images.

Robert Klippel - John Olsen - Albert Tucker - Rosalie Gascoigne - Philip Cox - Mary Eagle - Jenny Watson - Vivienne Binns - James Mollison - Bonita Ely - Ann Stephen - Elwyn Lynn - Lesley Dumbrell - Fiona Foley - Mike Parr - Ruth Walker - Julie Ewington - Stelarc - Jill Scott.