The landscape has been seen (and continues to be seen) as a potent ingredient (the most potent?) in the construction of a national myth, in the determination of an identity which we can call ‘Australian’. The question of identity is a difficult area in which to delve but it is one which has elicited much critical debate and as many views as there are voices. Lying About the Landscape is exemplary of this.

In a selection of eight essays introduced and edited by Geoff Levitus (artist, writer and founding editor of Periphery), we are presented with a range of ways of dealing with the myth of the landscape in a contemporary context and of ‘new’ approaches to the assessment of the role of the landscape in the formulation of an/the Australian identity. These essays are variously challenging, informative, aggressive, and stimulating.