Publisher: Uro Publications 2019, ISBN: 9780994396662, Author: Richard Goodwin, Designer: Sean Hogan, Format: Hardback, 264pp, 250x340mm
“If Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities has Venice at its core, then God in Reverse has Sydney as its object of tough love, unravelling the stranglehold that financialised space has placed around the city.” – Jeremy Till.
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.
Richard Goodwin has a PhD from University of New South Wales Art & Design where he is a Professor. He has won a number of prizes including the Wynne Prize (2011) from the Art Gallery of NSW. Goodwin’s work is held in major collections including the Art Gallery of NSW, the National Gallery of Victoria and the Nuremburg Museum.
What others think:
Shortlist, 2020 Cornish Family Prize
Distinction, 2019 AGDA Awards, design.
Longlist, 2019 Dezeen Awards, design category.
“If Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities has Venice at its core, then God in Reverse has Sydney as its object of tough love, unravelling the stranglehold that financialised space has placed around the city.” – Jeremy Till.
“Richard Goodwin is a mash-up genius. Perhaps carnivorous. Woof!” – Michael Sorkin
“...looks like no other architect monograph we've ever seen...” – American Institute of Graphic Arts, Eye on Design – Design Diary No. 242.
Take a look inside: