Sue Linburg was born in Richmond, Indiana and attended Indiana University where she studied sculpture with David Smith. A recipient of the prestigious Fulbright-Hays Scholarship, she studied at the Slade School of Art, University of London. There she developed a broader understanding of the traditions of western art which she would apply to her own work. Upon returning to the United States, Linburg received her Master of Fine Arts degree from Wayne State University in Detroit and subsequently settled in the metropolitan area. She became a Professor of Fine Arts for the College of Art and Design at the Center for Creative Studies while exhibiting nationally and internationally.

Arch VII is one of numerous works in a series concerned with arch imagery. According to a catalogue entry from 1989 for an outdoor exhibition including her work, Linburg stated, "This series orginates from a classical source: the Greek colony on the southern coast of Sicily. What remains of this destroyed civilization are monumental fragments of architectural elements. Pitted, eroded stone provides a view of a once great society. My arches intentionally allude to relationships of order and vitality, of stabiltiy and chaos in the modern world."