The Map as Art:
Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography
Katharine Harmon , Gayle Clemans

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.


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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,Êa book development company in Seattle.
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Editorial Reviews

The Local Shelf, The Register Guard:
"The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography by Katharine Harmon, with essays by art historian Gayle Clemans, both of Seattle, is just plain cool. Here are Seattles changing neighborhoods on woodblock prints. Here is a map of a London subway in red cotton thread stitched on rice paper. Heres the Caspian Sea in plywood. Put out this book and dare your guests not to pick it up." — Jamie Passaro (December 6, 2009)

Reading Room, Oprah Magazine:
"Katherine Harmons The Map as Art (Princeton Architectural) 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." (December 2009)

Absent Without Leave:
"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." (October 17, 2009)

Author Katherine Harmon explores a world of maps, The Seattle Times:
"Katherine Harmon is a book packager. She doesn't wrap books in pretty packages, she creates books by bringing together design, text, visual art and illustration.Magnolia resident Harmon, founder of the late Northwest Bookfest, has been involved with books for much of her professional life. Her latest effort, The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography, with essays by Gayle Clemans (Princeton Architectural Press), combines her background in books with her love of art and maps.Most people think of maps as tools for getting from here to there. Artists use them as a medium for expressing their observations, passions and anxieties about the contemporary world." — Mary Ann Gwinn (November 30, 2009)

DrawMark Blog:
"Because of the standard I don't have a MAC adapter for this digital projector issue, we almost didn't get to see the Katharine Harmons lecture last night. Happily Ms. Harmon and the audience kept up a lively Q+A session for her new book The Map as Art from Princeton [Architectural] Press, while someone trekked to their house to get the missing adapter (big thanks whoever you are). Ms. Harmon, also the author of the best seller You Are Here, was quite gracious and took the technical SNAFU in stride as she answered questions and related stories about visuals that no one could see. When the adapter finally did show up we were treated to a brisk slide presentation of contemporary artists interpretation of what makes a map. The book features work from quite a diverse group of artists, visions and disciplines, including painting, experiential mapping, sculpture and design. Nice evening, and a great book." — Mark Kaufman (January 22, 2010)

Travel book worth giving, USA Today:
"Whether you're looking for a gift for an armchair traveler or a frequent flyer, you can't go wrong with a book. Booksellers from three travel bookstores Distant Lands in Pasadena, Calif., Globe Corner in Cambridge, Mass., and Idlewild Books in New York City offered their recommendations for travel books that make good holiday gifts, from coffee-table books filled with gorgeous photos, to travelogues of long-ago adventures in faraway places, to practical guidebooks for every type of traveler.Pat Carrier, owner of the Globe Corner, says his customers have been very enthusiastic about World Heritage Sites: A Complete Guide to 878 UNESCO World Heritage Sites; Sites of Antiquity, about ancient architecture in the Middle East/Mediterranean, and in a new hardcover format from the Blue Guide series; How to Read Buildings: A Crash Course in Architectural Styles, perfect for the traveler interested in architecture, and The Map As Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography." — Beth J. Harpaz (November 22, 2009)

Artnet Design:
"Jan. 10, 2010, is the last chance to see The Map as Art, the exhibition at Christopher Henry Gallery at 127 Elizabeth Street in Manhattan that includes a Victorian gown made from New York City subway maps (by Meridith McNeal) that caught the eye of a blogger for the Wall Street Journal. The show is an offshoot of the Princeton Architectural Press book The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography, by Katharine Harmon and Gayle Clemans, which includes works by Ed Ruscha, Julian Schnabel,Olafur Eliasson, Vik Muniz and many other artists who, obviously, know their way around." (January 6, 2010)

Experimental Cartography: The Map as Art, Brain Pickings:
"A remarkable collection of 360 colorful, map-related visions of experimental cartography by well-known artists and design thinkers. " — Maria Popova (October 16, 2009)

Book Brew, Liquid Treat:
"In this, the era of blind follow-the-GPS-style navigation, what is the future of maps? The colorful, creative, and downright disorienting answer can be found in The Map as Art (Princeton Architectural Press) by Katharine Harmon. The cartographic coffee table book heads into the uncharted territory of "imaginative maps," 360 representations of places created by artists and designers such as Ed Ruscha, Maya Lin, and Vik Muniz out of everything from paint and plywood to skin and souvenir tea towels. Whether you're interested in how we envision political landscapes, represent neighborhoods, or visually manipulate directional information, you can get there from here." — Stephanie Murg (February 5, 2010)

Manhattan Users Guide:
"At the Christopher Henry Gallery, 127 Eliz [Broome/Grand] 212.244.6004, a show called The Map as Art, supporting the release of the book by the same name by Katharine Harmon, featuring 160 unusual maps from Ed Ruscha, Julian Schnabel, Olafur Eliasson, Maira Kalman, Florent Morellet, and many others." (November 12, 2009)

Death By Kerning:
"The kind folks at Princeton Architectural Press sent me a copy of The Map as Art, a collection of maps by a variety of artists, both well-known and less-known by Katharine Harmon. According to their write-up, In an era of globalized politics, culture, and ecology, contemporary artists are drawn to maps to express their visions. Some of these maps are just exquisite in their detail and form. And some will make you look twice. Click HERE to read the entire review on deathbykerning.blogspot.com" — Shikha Savdas (December 14, 2009)

In Other Words, Pasatiempo:
"Harmons eclectic selections in The Map as Art convey the degree to which artists have extended the boundaries of maps and the many ways one may consider maps and mapmaking. Randy McNally never ventured this far." — Douglas Fairfield (March 4, 2010)

Atlas Shrugged, New York Times:
"Artists have toyed with maps before - theres Salvador Dalis Surrealist Map of the World and Jasper Johns splotchy sendup of the Lower 48, for starters. But The Map as Art (Princeton Architectural Press; $45), a new coffee table curiosity by Katherine Harmon, shows how much traction the idea has with artists today. Theres been an exponential increase in map-related art in gallery and museum shows. Harmon says. The reason, I think, is that this is a time when were all disoriented. Instead of collecting real maps, she compiled more than 350 works that deal with representations of place: Maya Lins Baltic birch plywood sculptures of the Caspian Sea, Ruth Watsons globe made of animal tissue (with Antarctica done in brains), Vik Munizs six continents forged from old computer pars. Rand McNally seems a world away. " — Stephen Heyman (November 22, 2009)

The Best Books of 2009: Editors' Picks, Barnes and Noble Review:
"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 books coversincluding Ed Ruscha, Julian Schnabel, Olafor Eliasson, and many othersmap landscapes familiar, unknown, invented. The result is a beautiful, captivating volume." (December 4, 2009)

Arts & Life, National Post:
"Harmon's latest book, The Map as Art, explores how the ancient practice of cartography is being co-opted by contemporary artists to explore different realities. With 350 "maps" produced by artists including Julian Schnabel, Jasper Johns and director Lars Von Trier, the book features plenty of work that defies our expectations of what a map is: a map ofCambridge, Mass., its streets and public spaces renamed by citizens in an absurd experiment that challenges the idea of who gets to name things; a "map to not indicate" of the northeastern United States and Canada is missing all provinces and states except Iowa and Kentucky; a map that tracks the movements of Richard Kimble, the lead character in The Fugitive, across the U.S. " — Mark Medley (November 4, 2009)

365 A Book A Day, Photo Eye:
"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. " (December 31, 2009)

Interesting New book explores The Map as Art, Anything Geospatial - AnyGeo:
"I really dig abstract representations and interpretations that take advantage of maps, Geo technology and imagery - heres an interesting new book that touches on this subject. From the National Post Harmons latest book, The Map as Art, explores how the ancient practice of cartography is being co-opted by contemporary artists to explore different realities. With 350 maps produced by artists including Julian Schnabel, Jasper Johns and director Lars Von Trier, the book features plenty of work that defies our expectations of what a map is: a map of Cambridge, Mass., its streets and public spaces renamed by citizens in an absurd experiment that challenges the idea of who gets to name things; a map to not indicate of the northeastern United States and Canada is missing all provinces and states except Iowa and Kentucky and I really dig this statement I always remember that as sort of a revelation to me: that maps really dont have anything to do with being a representation of reality. " — Glenn Letham

The Art Shelf, The Midwest Book Review:
"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." — Diane C. Donovan (December 2009)

Mapping it, Designer BS:
"The online daily magazine The Morning News often showcases some pretty nice art, and today's Gallery section (October 12) is no exception. They've written about a book titled The Map As Art edited by Katharine Harmon (from Princeton Architectural Press). It's all about how artists are rethinking cartography. To read the full review on designerbs.blogspot.com click HERE. " — Suzanne Dellorto and Beth Tondreau (October 12, 2009)

Gift Finder, Oprah.com:
"Nice review of Map as Art. Click HERE to read the entire review on oprah.com" — Francine Prose

The Art of Maps, KUOW.ORG:
"Maps tell you more than simply how to get from here to there. Nearly any kind of information can be put into a map. Perhaps that is why cartography is so compelling to artists. What can artists do with maps? What makes maps such a unique art form? Today on Weekday, we explore the map as art." (November 19, 2009)

Off The Map, Fine Books Magazine:
"The second book, The Map as Art, veers in an entirely different direction. It looks at cartography as a modern and post-modern art form through the work of 160 contemporary artists. The author writes, In postmodern times, with all truths suspect, artists have found in cartography a rich vein of concepts and imagery to mind.From Salvadore Dali to Saul Steinberg, artists have created maps as a way to explore politics, culture, and the environment. As a collection of such pieces of cartographic visualization, this book is disarming, even if some of the artwork is praiseworthy and some is lackluster agitprop. " — Rebecca Rego Barry (January 2010)

The Map as Art, ARTCAT:
"In the guise of offering illumination, maps obscure. They purport to bring order to the fundamental chaos of life, promising clarity in the face of flux, and claiming knowledge of the unknowable. In their quest to demarcate our differences, they comfort us even as they give the lie to the notion of common experience."

The World As Their Canvas, New York Times Book Review:
"There has always been art in cartography, Katharine Harmon writes in THE MAP AS ART: CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS EXPLORE CARTOGRAPHY, but when exactly the first modern artist employed the map as a muse is not clear. Since the 1960s there has been an exponential increase in artists working with maps, she adds using Jasper Johnss Map, from 1963, by way of example. " — Steven Heller (March 7, 2010)

Manhattan Users Guide:
"At the Christopher Henry Gallery, 127 Eliz [Broome/Grand] 212.244.6004, a show called The Map as Art, supporting the release of the book by the same name by Katharine Harmon, featuring 160 unusual maps from Ed Ruscha, Julian Schnabel, Olafur Eliasson, Maira Kalman, Florent Morellet, and many others." (November 12, 2009)

The Map as Art, Cool Hunting:
"The Map as Art, a new book edited by Katharine Harmon from Princeton Architectural Press, richly surveys todays artistic landscape and its relation to the map. For anyone whos 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. To read the full review on coolhunting.com click HERE. " — Brian Fichtner (October 1, 2009)

Coffee Table Gallery/Where We Are, The Morning News:
"Though I am content to admire maps in their undiluted practical applications or informational modality, Katharine Harmon (You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination) has assembled a fascinating compendium of 360 maps by artistsEd Ruscha, Julian Schnabel, Olafur Eliasson, Maira Kalman, William Kentridge, and 150 othersin a monograph entitled The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography (Princeton Architectural Press). Art historian Gayle Clemans contributes some illuminating essays, though the images are certainly articulate on their own. Both volumes are a treatone charts paths that can and have been taken, the other, trails blazed by imaginations. Its a nice choice to have. " — Robert Birnbaum (March 15, 2010)

The Map as Art, The Morning News:
"Edited by Katharine Harmon, the new collection The Map as Art from Princeton Architectural Press brings together 360 visions of experimental cartography. It is wonderfully inspiring. " (October 30, 2009)

Maps Outside the Boundaries, WNYC:
"Red states, blue states, made up states. Katharine Harmon, editor of The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography talks about her new book, which highlights maps as outfits, political statements and art. " (November 4, 2009)

Consuming Consumables, PopMatters:
"Who hasnt pored over a map, totally absorbed, oblivious to the passage of time? You are Here, for the time being, and Here is you, in all the cultural, political, and geographical interpretations of that phrase you care to consider. If youre 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. Click HERE to read the entire review on popmatters.com" — Karen Zarker (December 16, 2009)

Duke Magazine:
"The Map as Art achieves notable success in drawing a compelling picture of the sheer density of artworks that are concerned with making sense of the world through maps. At a time when technology, politics, and travel cause the definitions of home and away to continually shift, Harmon demonstrates that art has the power to help illuminate the paths of understanding." — Teka Selman (March-April 2010)

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