Bell's inspiration is complex and multi-layered. He is an avid appropriator, borrowing from other artists, periods, and cultures, including Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, Jackson Pollock, and Aboriginal painter Emily Kam Kngwarreye, among others. He works across a wide range of media, including painting, performance, and video, producing powerful messages that confront and unsettle: about Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians' relationship to each other, about their country's history and about art itself. Published in conjunction with the exhibition Richard Bell: Uz vs. Them AUTHOR: Maura Reilly is professor of Art theory at Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia Djon Mundine is a member of the Bandjalung people of northern New South Wales, is an independent curator of contemporary art, as well as an activist, writer, and occasional artist Eleanor Heartney is a contributing editor to Art in America and Artpress and author of many articles and books on contemporary art, most recently, Art and Today (2008). SELLING POINTS: * A long overdue broad-ranging study of one of Australia's most collectable leading contemporary artists, featuring works from over two decades * Publication accompanies the first travelling exhibition dedicated to Richard Bell's work in the United States, organized by the American Federation of Arts * Includes a major interview with the artist by Maura Reilly in which the formal and complex qualities of his work are discussed within the wider context of indigenous politics * About the Book * Richard Bell has established a significant reputation as a political commentator and an "enfant terrible" in Indigenous art over the past two decades. This stunningly illustrated catalogue features more than 26 colour plates of his provocative and often humorous works. With their bold use of images and text, they force viewers to face the troubling issue of racism in Australia.

ILLUSTRATIONS: 46 colour 10 b/w.