As an artist, architect and urban activist, Richard Goodwin has never been interested in following rules. It is therefore fitting that this monograph, encompassing over four decades of work, is entirely unorthodox.

Authored and illustrated by Goodwin (with both archival photographs and recent artwork), God in Reverse: Art, Architecture and Consciousness fuses biography, fiction, criticism, observation and imagination. It reveals a broad range of philosophies and cultural influences that underpin Goodwin’s practice and elaborates on his unique and experimental world-view, as it applies to his architecture, public artworks, sculpture, drawings and performance art.

Having studied architecture at both RMIT and UNSW, Goodwin has been a critical commentator of architecture and urbanism, particularly within Sydney, since the 1970s. The book moves seamlessly from lambasting the commercial greed of the Barangaroo wharf development, to ruminations on the divided city of Jerusalem, to lessons in urban planning offered by coral reefs. The ethical questions raised by the text span drone warfare and super-high density housing.

Designed by award-winning designer Sean Hogan, the book’s taut and irreverent design is a testament to its unconventional content, with the text-flow and layout slowly discombobulating as the pages turn.