Books on Mapping

If you like maps, graphics, arts and just a lot of really amazing ways to "read" places, then you've got to check out these two books by Katharine Harmon.  Both of these books compile different types of maps, and how they are composed.  Usually, we would think of a map as the ones that involve places with reference to geographic locations.  But if we think of "mapping" as a way of "revealing" something, then the definition of maps goes beyond our typical city map, street map or world map.

It took my quite sometimes too to grasp what "mapping" means.  Think of it this way: when we read a map, we can see specific places, buildings, landmarks that are "chosen" to be shown by the mapper, while certain things are left out.  A street map would be different from a subway map, because some things matter to car drivers, while other things only matter to subway riders.

If we look at it that way, we can start to perceive how bias a map can be.  For example, your map of a city will be different from my map of that same city.  Each of us see the world differently through our own eyes and experiences.  It is through sharing some of our "versions" of the world that we can begin to understand places around us differently.

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

and

The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography

 

This one is a booklet of collections of 10 Maps.

 An Atlas of Radical Cartography

10 different maps mapping different things

I got all three from Amazon.