Marshs article is largely in response to Bernard Smiths article In Defence of Art History (I&II) published in Art Monthly 2000. Smiths essays were part of a larger debate between art historians and those aligning themselves with either the new art history, or postmodern methodologies associated with cultural studies or virtual culture. Marsh refers to the works of key figures such as Rosalind Krauss, Hal Foster, Peter Greenaway, David Lynch, Caravaggio, Lyndal Walker, David Rosetzky, Versacci, Clement Greenberg, Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Louis Althusser, Jean Baudrillard, Walter Benjamin, Thomas Crow and Marcel Proust.