borrow or rob

An outstanding collection of poetry examining art and appropriation, from the winner of the Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize

borrow or rob examines themes of place, appropriation and extraction through cross-disciplinary considerations of Margaret Preston's printmaking and contemporaneous writing. The graceful and assured lines mount an incisive and astute intervention into the history of 'Australian' art. An impressive and dexterous synthesis of theme and form, borrow or rob implicates the reader in a compelling journey over the ethical topography of making art on stolen land.

With precise control of language and voice, Eva Phillips gives rise to a work that cannot be easily defined or contained in anything but poetry. Probing, meditative and insistent, each poem hums with insight, crystalline imagery and consummate skill. Above all, they implore us to look and then look again.

borrow or rob is a superbly crafted and important poetic tool that interrogates its own history.