The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography [Hardcover]

Katharine Harmon (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1568987625 | ISBN-13: 978-1568987620 | Publication Date: September 23, 2009 | Edition: 26,5 cm x 23,5 cm

Maps can be simple tools, comfortable in their familiar form. Or they can lead to different destinations: places turned upside down or inside out, territories riddled with marks understood only by their maker, realms connected more to the interior mind than to the exterior world. These are the places of artists' maps, that happy combination of information and illusion that flourishes in basement studios and downtown galleries alike. It is little surprise that, in an era of globalized politics, culture, and ecology, contemporary artists are drawn to maps to express their visions. Using paint, salt, souvenir tea towels, or their own bodies, map artists explore a world free of geographical constraints.

Katharine Harmon knows this territory. As the author of our best-selling book You Are Here, she has inspired legions of new devotees of imaginative maps. In The Map as Art, Harmon collects 360 colorful, map-related artistic visions by well-known artistssuch as Ed Ruscha, Julian Schnabel, Olafur Eliasson, Maira Kalman, William Kentridge, and Vik Munizand many more less-familiar artists for whom maps are the inspiration for creating art. Essays by Gayle Clemans bring an in-depth look into the artists' maps of Joyce Kozloff, Landon Mackenzie, Ingrid Calame, Guillermo Kuitca, and Maya Lin. Together, the beautiful reproductions and telling commentary make this an essential volume for anyone open to exploring new paths.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“In her striking new book THE MAP AS ART, author Katharine Harmon brings together a wide selection of maps clearly meant to be more psychologically expressive than geographically correct…. By the end of the book, you wonder just which way is up.” —Art in America

“Katharine Harmon's THE MAP AS ART is a collection of visionary topographies and imaginary geographies charted by artists including Vik Muniz, a Brazilian who re-creates the globe from pieces of junk; Kim Jones, an American who draws obsessively detailed battle diagrams; and the amazing Congolese painter Cheri Samba, who populates his dreamscape with figures from the all-too-real spheres of politics and finance.” —O, the Oprah Magazine

“Rand McNally seems a world away.” —New York Times Magazine

“Colorful, creative, and downright disorienting. Whether you're interested in how we envision political landscapes, represent neighborhoods, or visually manipulate directional information, you can get there from here.” —Liquid Treat

“A remarkable collection of 360 colorful, map-related visions of experimental cartography by well-known artists and design thinkers.” —Brain Pickings

“[THE MAP AS ART] features plenty of work that defies our expectations of what a map is.” —The National Post

“Katharine Harmon knows this territory. As the author of our best-selling book YOU ARE HERE, she has inspired legions of new devotees of imaginative maps…. Together, the beautiful reproductions and telling commentary make this an essential volume for anyone open to exploring new paths.” —Photo Eye

“For anyone who’s ever gotten lost in the pages of a AAA road map or daydreamed of faraway places while spinning a globe, THE MAP AS ART offers ample opportunity for fascination. Over 250 pages of visually engaging, thought-provoking works are rife with relevance.” —Cool Hunting

“This new volume by the author of the ingenious YOU ARE HERE extends the boundaries of her celebration of mapmaking. Employing a range of media and states of mind that range from the playful to the political, the artists represented between the book's covers—including Ed Ruscha, Julian Schnabel, Olafur Eliasson, and many others—map landscapes familiar, unknown, invented. The result is a beautiful, captivating volume.” —Barnes and Noble Review

“Who hasn’t pored over a map, totally absorbed, oblivious to the passage of time? If you’re inclined to such daydreaming, THE MAP AS ART will intrigue, delight and perplex you, as you browse through 160 contemporary artists’ interpretations of mapping the world.” —PopMatters

“THE MAP AS ART is just plain cool. Here are Seattle's changing neighborhoods on woodblock prints. Here is a map of a London subway in red cotton thread stitched on rice paper. Here's the Caspian Sea in plywood. Put out this book and dare your guests not to pick it up.” —The Register Guard

About the Author

Katharine Harmon, author of You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination, proposes a show-stopping hardcover book featuring map-related artistic visions. The Map as Art is filled with 250 works by well-known artists--Joyce Kozloff, Ed Ruscha, Julian Schnabel, Olafer Eliasson, Paul Scher, William Kentridge, Vik Muniz, Guillermo Kuitca, Joseph Cornell, and Maya Lin, for example--and many more less-familiar artists for whom maps are the inspiration for creating art. All are wayfinders, charting the highways and byways of the spirit and the topography of the soul.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press; 26,5 cm x 23,5 cm edition (September 23, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568987625
• ISBN-13: 978-1568987620
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 10.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #239,283 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Katharine Harmon has produced more than a dozen titles such as Blackstocks Collections: The Drawings of an Artistic Savant and is the author of several books, including You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination. She manages Tributary Books,Ea book development company in Seattle.

Maps can be simple tools, comfortable in their familiar form.

Or they can lead to different destinations: places turned upside down or inside out, territories riddled with marks understood only by their maker, realms connected more to the interior mind than to the exterior world. These are the places of artists' maps, that happy combination of information and illusion that flourishes in basement studios and downtown galleries alike. It is little surprise that, in an era of globalized politics, culture, and ecology, contemporary artists are drawn to maps to express their visions. Using paint, salt, souvenir tea towels, or their own bodies, map artists explore a world free of geographical constraints.

Katharine Harmon knows this territory. As the author of our best-selling book You Are Here, she has inspired legions of new devotees of imaginative maps. In The Map as Art, Harmon collects 360 colorful, map-related artistic visions by well-known artists--such as Ed Ruscha, Julian Schnabel, Olafur Eliasson, Maira Kalman, William Kentridge, and Vik Muniz--and many more less-familiar artists for whom maps are the inspiration for creating art. Essays by Gayle Clemans bring an in-depth look into the artists' maps of Joyce Kozloff, Landon Mackenzie, Ingrid Calame, Guillermo Kuitca, and Maya Lin. Together, the beautiful reproductions and telling commentary make this an essential volume for anyone open to exploring new paths.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Harmon's new book is a visual and literary feast!, October 15, 2009

By 

Christine A. Stickler (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography (Hardcover)

As a great fan of Katherine Harmon's previous book: You are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination, I looked forward to the release of this second book with a focus on maps. I doubted that I could be as taken with it as I was with her first but in fact believe that she has surpassed herself in creating a rich and layered exploration of maps as seen through the lens and reflections of artists. I love how she has divided the book into sections such as Conflict and Sorrow, Personal Terrain, Global Reckoning and Inner Visions which allow for an imaginative journey through the book.
The design and layout by Jane Jeszeck is stellar; clear and uncluttered allowing each image to have its showing.
You most definitely do not need to be a "map person" to love and appreciate this book!

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Glorious Stuff, October 15, 2009

By 

Stephen F. Roth - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography (Hardcover)

I find myself looking through this book again and again, always finding new things. The choice of artworks is spectacular, the production values are gorgeous, and the commentary and essays are interesting, illuminating, and fun to read. I can't even imagine the amount of work that went into putting this book together (look inside). I'm just delighted that she did all that work so we can enjoy it.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A gorgeous book for map and art lovers, December 10, 2009

By 

Robert C. Ross (New Jersey) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography (Hardcover)

Harmon created the best selling You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination in 2004. The book contained a wide variety of maps, from fantastic historical maps to modern art versions of alternative realities. Harmon writes that many artists loved the book, and asked her to look at their work for inclusion in a new volume. The result is The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography edited by Harmon and with essays by Gayle Clemans.

The book is beautifully produced on excellent stock, binding and gorgeous reproductions; the artists use maps as a "medium for expressing their observations, passions and anxieties about the contemporary world."

There are 360 maps made from all sorts of media, traditional painting, modified globes, tree branches, butterfly wings, spider webs and more. Unusual examples include:

Kim Baranowski's map of alien-abduction sites, which is part of the "Mappa Mundi" series: "information that would give schoolchildren nightmares; areas of the world not yet hit by asteroids, potential U.S. nuclear targets ... or "show-and-tell for the paranoid."

Vik Muniz created a world map using junk from garbage dumps, assembled with the help of youngsters from the shantytowns of Rio de Janeiro.

Corriette Schoenaerts, 'Europe,' 2005, is a construction of countries and continents made out of clothing.

In 2002, China's Long March Project embarked upon a `Walking Visual Display' along the route of the 1934-1936 historic 6000-mile Long March, and Beijing-based artist Qin kept tracked the group's route in a tattooed map on his back. Three years later, Qin continued the trek where the original marchers had left off, accompanied by a camera crew and a tattoo artist, who continually updated the map on Qin's back.

Harmon's favorite is from the Bambanani women's group, a South African group of HIV-positive women who created body maps tracking battles with the virus: "Today I feel good I am happy. I am free ... I've disappointed the devil" wrote one artist on her map..

Harmon writes: "I've given a lot of thought to why people respond to maps. It perhaps comes down to us locating ourselves in an inconceivably vast universe on one hand, and in our own complicated lives as well." This lovely and challenging collection gave me a great deal to think about, not only as a map lover, but as someone who enjoys studying art in finely produced books.


Robert C. Ross 2009