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The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography by

Katharine Harmon

Article  in  Canadian Geographer / Le Géographe canadien · June 2011

DOI: 10.1111/j.1541-0064.2011.00358.x

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268 Reviews / Comptes rendus
The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore
Cartography
by Katharine Harmon, with essays by Gayle
Clemans, Princeton Architectural Press, New
York, 2009, 256 pp., paper $34.95 (ISBN
9781568989723)
DOI: 10.1111/j.1541-0064.2011.00358.x
In her previous book You Are Here, Katharine
Harmon (2003) compiled an original collection
of modern and contemporary maps designed by
artists, cartographers, and explorers. In her new
book, she brings us into the fascinating world
of contemporary artists engaged in mapmaking.
This exploration is primarily visual. It is orga-
nized around more than 300 maps and carto-
graphic installations reproduced in full colour,
on high-quality paper. Short comments and artist
statements accompany each piece, which help
significantly in understanding the range of artis-
tic approaches. Particular attention has been
given to the graphic design. The result is a splen-
did volume that serves both as a coffee table
book and as an important academic reference.
The author’s introduction highlights the expo-
nential increase in the number of artists who
have worked with maps since the 1960s, and the
role these artists play in affirming that maps can
be personal visions of the world and not sim-
ply objective representations. The book is orga-
nized in seven sections characterizing some of
the major trends in artistic renditions of map-
ping, including “Conflict and Sorrow,” “Global
Reckoning,” and “Personal Terrain.” Essays by art
historian Gayle Clemans conclude five of these
sections, each describing in greater detail the
work of a selected contemporary artist. These
well-written and well-documented essays weave
together the stories of the artists and their maps,
giving critical perspectives and depth to the book
as a whole. Clemans discusses, for example, the
remarkable work of Joyce Kozloff. This artist’s
work is not only deeply political and highly per-
sonal, it is also visually appealing. In order to
explore the relationship between maps, war, his-
tory, and childhood, Joyce Kozloff has designed a
series of collages that combine drawings of bat-
tlefields, historical maps, kids’ drawings, as well
as images of superheroes, soldiers, and other
The Canadian Geographer / Le Géographe canadien 55, no 2 (2011)
characters. Her artwork highlights a major ethical
ambiguity often found in maps. Contemplating
maps can be highly pleasurable. Yet such plea-
sure frequently rests on—and obscures—violent
reality. Maps of exploration and colonization, for
example, are often aesthetically beautiful objects
that obscure violent actions.
Overall, this collection illustrates the diversity,
the energy, and the tensions found in contempo-
rary cartographic expression. The representations
range from the purely conceptual to the aes-
thetically stunning, from the entire world to the
body, from the computer screen to animal skin,
from memory to utopian vision, from the per-
manent to the ephemeral. Through these exam-
ples, Harmon reveals the breadth and liveliness
of contemporary cartographic production in the
art world. Despite some minor issues—overlap
between sections, absence of some interesting
contemporary artists (e.g., Jeremy Wood, Lize Mo-
gel, Titus Matiyane), and an overrepresentation
of Anglophone artists—this book makes a ma-
jor contribution to the contemporary discipline
of cartography. It offers a crucial counterpoint
to the overwhelming technologic and scien-
tific framework that has driven cartography for
decades. This volume clearly demonstrates the
importance of art in mapmaking. The role of art
in cartography has often been reduced to graphic
design. While this dimension is important—and
it has not been neglected in this book—the
book also demonstrates the poetic and political
functions that art offers mapmaking. More than
just data, artists express understandings, fears,
hopes, emotions, and perceptions about places
and people through maps, and these dimensions
are essential for fully understanding our relation
to places in the world today.
This book will satisfy anybody who thinks that
maps are beautiful and powerful ways of repre-
senting the world. One can open it and get lost
in all the worlds artists are producing and repro-
ducing. This book is essential for academics and
students interested in maps and in the repre-
sentation of places. Certain authors such as De-
nis Wood (2006) and Ruth Watson (2009) have
provided insightful reviews of maps in contem-
porary art, but before this publication no one
had compiled such a meaningful collection of
representations. We can only hope that con-
temporary cartographers and geographers might

derive as much inspiration from the work
of these contemporary artists as contemporary
artists have derived inspiration by maps in their
explorations of the world.
References
HARMON, K. 2003. You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other
Maps of the Imagination. New York, NY: Princeton Architec-
tural Press
WATSON, R. 2009. “Mapping and Contemporary Art”. The Carto-
graphic Journal 46(4): 293–307
WOOD, D. 2006. “Map Art”. Cartographic Perspectives 53: 5–14
SÉBASTIEN CAQUARD
Concordia University
Environmental Impact Assessment: Practice
and Participation (2nd ed.)
edited by Kevin S. Hanna, Oxford University
Press, Don Mills, Ontario, 2009, xii + 467 pp.,
paper $87.00 (ISBN 978-0-19-543022-6)
DOI: 10.1111/j.1541-0064.2011.00359.x
Two questions can be asked about the second
edition of any book: how good was the original
and how significant are the updates? In this case,
the answer to the first question is simple, the
first edition proved its worth by becoming and
remaining an important reference book for both
teaching and applying environmental impact as-
sessment (EIA) in Canada. The answer to the sec-
ond is a little more difficult.
This edition shares much with the first, and
so has retained its strengths. Two parts offer
orthogonal perspectives on EIA in Canada, one
by EIA theme, one by jurisdiction. The thematic
section treats basic attributes of EIA (conceptual
framework, history and evolution, the science of
assessment) and an array of procedures (public
participation and hearings, strategic, social, and
cumulative effects assessment, and the complexi-
ties of interjurisdictional assessments). The juris-
dictional section addresses EIA law, practice, and
experience by region.
As an edited collection, the book has the
strengths and the weaknesses that follow. The
weaknesses are structural and stylistic variabil-
The Canadian Geographer / Le Géographe canadien 55, no 2 (2011)
View publication stats
Reviews / Comptes rendus 269
ity, differences in resolution, some difficulty in
sensing a master plan that facilitates compar-
isons between chapters assuring comprehensive-
ness of the whole. However, the strengths of the
approach compensate: the voices of 30 experts
on Canadian EIA are heard, each bringing de-
scriptions and critiques of theoretical and pro-
cedural aspects of EIA, while drawing on varied
experiences with application. This enriches the
narrative with tip-of-the-iceberg references that
do not constitute major themes in the book but
present launch points for important discussions.
For example: Baker and Rapaport (p. 51) say, “For
the most part EIA is concerned with short-term
changes that treat the environment as static. . .”;
Sinclair and Diduck (p. 71) say, “participant fund-
ing mechanisms. . .are varied in their clarity and
design. . .”; and Pushchak and Farrugia-Uhalde
(p. 151) say, “Native Canadians expressed the
fear that divisions among Aboriginal communi-
ties would result if a voluntary siting method in-
cluded offers of compensation. . ..” Each of these
(and many others) points to rich veins for chal-
lenging discussion. A second strength of Part
1 is the large number of lists—e.g., three at-
tributes of environmental assessment, four ele-
ments of rational comprehensive planning, seven
stages of expanded decision making, in the first
three pages alone. Lists are often provocative,
but for teaching and discussion, they provide im-
mediate launch points for analysis and critique.
The real extent of the revisions to the book
is hard to gauge: conspicuously, two chapters
are added—planning in Nunavut and EIA for the
2010 Olympics. Each has merit on its own and
they widen the scope of the discussion, although
it is not clear that they were intended to make
particular strategic contributions to cohesion or
completeness. The publisher notes that the in-
troductory chapter “now emphasizes the impor-
tance of considering efficacy as well as efficiency
in EIA.” This is a rather modest claim, but its
importance could have been extended by asking
each of the authors to pick up the theme. Other
changes appear to be mostly updating, a worthy
task in a field that evolves as rapidly as EIA.
There are some minor quibbles. The title
should include the word Canada, the subti-
tle should be reflected in the structure of the
book; the difference between the book title and
the title of Part 1 should be interpretable.