Terry Smith (born 1944) is an Australian theorist, critic, and curator of contemporary art, and a former member of the Art & Language collective, which was at the forefront of Western conceptualism. The five essays collected in this book, introduced by a thorough editor's preface, were written between 1972 and 2012. They explore the nature of conceptual art and conceptualism from theoretical, philosophical, ideological, geographical, and artistic perspectives.

Smith presents five approaches and five facets of this art form in its historical dynamics, viewing it both from the inside (as a member of the conceptualist group) and from the outside (from the positions of criticism, philosophy, and other variants of conceptualism, etc.). He discusses its role as a mediator between late modernism and the newest art.