You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination

There are aspects to map-making Rand McNally never told us. An objective rendering in two dimensions of the real world? There are so many other ways to map. What about subjective renderings? And imaginary worlds? This book offers a generous selection of both, although one has the impression that this is only scratching the surface of the territory where cartography and art intersect. The essays and maps brought many insights, among them, the consideration that maps not only tell us about the space they depict, but also about the map-maker and his or her intended audience. Recommended

I came across this via Powell's reviews-of-the-day. I'm not a big map person, but these sounded fun. And many were. Others were lovely. The Bridget Booher text piece was particularly entertaining; I'm sad she doesn't really have anything else out there.

This is a lovely collection of maps, art, essays and oddities. Mapping our bodies, mapping fictional places, mapping emotions and mapping the actual world. It's fun to flick through, visually interesting, and also good to read in a little more depth.

Some books make me want to jump -- Mary Poppins style -- right in. But never have I ever wanted it more than with this little delight of a book.
-- Posey

A beautiful journey through unusual and artistic applications of maps and mapping.

This book looks at mapmaking "beyond the boundaries of geography or convention," that is to say, as a way of conceptualizing real or imagined places or even abstract concepts. It includes over 100 maps from artists, cartographers, and explorers. In the interest of full disclosure, some of the maps reproduced in the book were loaned by our gallery, but we were enthusiastic about assisting this project because we welcome the author's attention to pictorial maps, about which there is a dearth of historical research. We hope that other authors continue to research and publish on this fascinating and important genre.

Being an interesting collection of cartographical oddments, connected by occasional, somewhat disconnected short essays on related subjects.