This book reveals that there can be a great overlap between art and maps. This coffee table book revels a large number of artists for whom there is an intersection between maping and their vision put on paper or sculpted. The book is truly imaginative and it is really absorbing to see what they have come up with. ( )

Arsty-fartsy. I'm not ignorant, but I don't have the true sensibility of an artist, a person who wants to explore philosophical ideas through creation of something startling. So some of these seem like they might be cool if we could actually see them performed (if appropriate), or at least in a gallery, instead of reduced into a book. But most left me cold. I did like the little essays which often gave enough insight to help me appreciate the intent of the author more. But stuff like seeing the shapes of the Hawaiian Islands in lichen on a rock and so labeling them doesn't mean art to me. That's just seeing Jesus in a potato chip, sorry. ( )

"Geographers submit to a tacit agreement to obey certain mapping conventions, to speak in a malleable but standardized visual language. Artists are free to disobey these rules. They can mock preoccupation with ownership, spheres of influence, and conventional cultural orientations and beliefs." (p. 10)

"Creative geographer and author Denis Wood writes, "Map artists...claim the power of the map to achieve ends other than the social reproduction of the status quo. Map artists do not reject maps. They reject the authority claimed by normative maps uniquely to portray reality as it is, that is, with dispassion and objectivity." " (p. 13)

"Artists chart singular perceptions rather than assert meaning for any collective truth." (p. 15)

[These are map artists, not cartographers per se.] ( )

The entire family read this to varying degrees. Inspiring and fascinating look at how people map their geographies . . . whether they be political, geological, or personal. Loved the more in-depth essays (the boy skipped those). ( )

This superbly illustrated book presens a vast collection of map-related art, exploring the works of well-known as well as obscure artists with the same level of detail. Whether as the intrinsic aesthetic element or as a political statement, maps shown in this book all have a story to tell. At the end, I was nevertheless a bit disappointed, since most art pieces somewhat lack that very special combination of relevant data, precision and pure gorgeousness that sends my map-lover's heart racing... ( )