Paper Bark Press
Pure and Applied
1998, 96 pages, softcover, 215x150mm
ISBN 0 9586482 6 3
Cover art by Stephen Bram
'The poems ride a surface cognitive dissonance (lyrical language that unmasks any pretence toward transcendence; confusions of colloquial and 'poetic' discourse) that hovers over a more consistent vision of corrupt and banal politics, unhappy relationships, and twentieth-century history as rotten as it is rich with poetic possibilities.
'Ryan's command of language, a language that she attempts to purify with the acid of her irony, is so fine that she might persuade us, after all, of her bleak vision. It's postmodernism without the manic fun, a landscape that we need to see.'
~ Susan M. Schultz, Verse
'At her best gig Ryan's poems have an electric clarity, their sharp-eyed observance of social mores, paired with mordant wit and linguistic flair. Working with great skill in classical forms ... Gig Ryan is uncommonly funny at times. Pure and Applied is fine and accomplished in a stunning way.'
~ Hugh Tolhurst, Heat
'This collection demonstrates Ryan's superlative control of poetic tone. She is a great ironist, a characteristic which gives her political poems their powerful crushing bite. Her portrait poems and dramatic monologues demonstrate a keen ear for the qualities of vulnerability and aggression carried in ordinary colloquial language.'
~ Ivor Indyk
Pure and Applied won The Victorian Premier's C.J. Dennis Prize, New Poetry, and was shortlisted for The Kenneth Slessor NSW Prize for Poetry 1999.