Dr Catherine Stuart and Dr Paul Finucane have spent the past three years researching and writing a book to celebrate the often hidden contributions of women in art.

"It's based on the realisation that women artists had a challenging job in justifying their existence during the late 19^th and 20^th century," Dr Finucane said.

"Even to this day, women who contributed to art in that period are not as well regarded as the men, who have no greater talent."

The book, entitled Odd Roads to be Walking documents the rise and fall of 165 women in the Australian cultural and artist landscape of the 19^th and 20^th Century.

"[When you look at] equity in art, Australia is ahead of the rest of the world in terms of women," Dr Stuart said.

"It's improved enormously, but it's on the shoulders of these women that modern women stand."

Facing enormous prejudice from their society, many of the women were bared from participation at the major art schools in Sydney and Melbourne.

So they journeyed to Europe in pursuit of their passion.

"Two-thirds had to go to Europe, and back then it was a six month trip by boat, so they stayed for several years at at time," Dr Finucane said.

"When they came back, they brought more than just their art training. They had immersed in art, philosophy architecture, and they helped Australia develop to the way it is."

The women who made their mark included Dora Hawthorne, who lived eight years on the street out of a packing case.

Or Florence Broadhurst, who Dr Finucane describes as "having half-a-dozen lives, one more amazing than the next".

She reinvented herself throughout her entrepreneurial life from a businesswoman to a designer to a singer and an artistic.

But who met an awful end, murdered in her Sydney studio in 1977 by a yet unknown assailant.

"The first thing is to recognise and acknowledge these women and their stories," Dr Finucane said.

"We owe these women an enormous debt. The country would not be the same without them.

"Still today, some of these women are [relatively] unknown, they have been airbrushed out of history."

The book is the culmination of an unusual passion project for two medical professionals, but is the natural result of a friendship that formed out of similar pursuits.

"We are both from Ireland, we both work in medicine and we are both interested in art, so it was inevitable really," Dr Finucane said.

"We both work in medicine where we would come across people with compelling life stories everyday [and] recording life stories does come naturally to any medical professional.

"Knowing the life story is an important way to know the person. It's getting to know the person with the illness as much as known the illness in the person."

Medicine and art have lost their defining crossover, said Dr Stuart, but the authors hope to restore the connection.

"Medicine and art were closely linked disciplines once," Dr Stuart said.

"Doctors traditionally had the privileged position to see into people's lives and understand how they lived. A lot of doctors used to be playwrights and painters as well."

Odd Roads to be Walking will be made officially available following Thursday's book launch at the Riverine Club from 6pm.