Customer Reviews

The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography

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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!

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.

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

THE MAP AS ART: CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS EXPLORE CARTOGRAPHY is an outstanding survey recommended not just for art libraries but for those involved in geography and international culture. It provides a survey of artists' map expressions, showing how artistic cartography ultimately creates a world free of geographic boundaries. Map-related visions by some 160 modern artists make for an outstanding survey packed with 360 color illustrations.

The Map As Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography
This book provides an excellent overview of artists who have explored cartography. The introduction discusses the development of this field and considers the theoretical implications of this. There is a strong leaning towards more political pieces in this book.Really good book though!

This is wonderful exploration of maps in different mediums and genres. Harmon's pages intermingle both well-known and emerging artists, creating an interesting and exciting collage of photos. This book offers something for everyone - my personal favorite is page 201.

I am a fiber artist and a teacher. I really enjoyed the creative possibilities this book generaged for me and my students to consider. Maps will never be the same for me again, either in concept or design.

My wife loves maps and I got this for her birthday. We have discovered many new artists through this book and highly recommend it.

This book is a delicious find. It undertakes nothing less than to gather into one source a wide variety of approaches to mapping the world of our imaginations. A wonderful collection with a wide range of points of view about how the world can be seen and understood. The wide range of artists, from well known to not so well recognized, each brings a unique vision to bear in the way of understanding their worlds. It's truly mind expanding in the various cosmologies and hypothetical what ifs that are represented between the covers. This book supports repeated immersion as one considers the different worlds that are conjured within. As an artist I find the contents to be wonderfully liberating while considering my own thoughts on the subject. Congratulations to Katherine Harmon on such a fine job of researching and assembling these images. Surely a labor of love as is shown to us in style and content. A great gift for the creative one in your life.

I purchased this book as a gift for my son, who is interested in both artwork and maps. I have looked through the book & feel that he will be very pleased with it.