John Nixon has a considerable reputation in Australia as a leading conceptual artist. Much of his work is minimal and abstract and involves painting and assembling installations. In 1980 Nixon declared all of his work to come under the general title Self Portrait (Non Objective Composition), emphasising that he sees his works as an extension or representation of his ‘self’. His suite of prints produced for Aus Australien represents his earliest forays into printmaking. These could be considered as ‘found’ images, printed from plywood blocks with no intervention by the artist with traditional woodcutting tools. Nixon has allowed the untouched woodgrain to represent himself as a self portrait.