Murray declares that 'This book is an encounter between works of art held by the National Gallery of Australia and poems or parts of poems from my forty years of writing.' Murray chooses approximately 100 poetry selections (and writes several new pieces specifically for this book) and establishes a dialogue between his words and some of the Gallery's visual works.
The book includes colour and black and white re-productions of landscapes, sculpture, photographs and Aboriginal art. The artworks are predominantly by Australians, but include some representations from Europe, Africa, Asia, North America and the Pacific.