The Image of the World: 20 Centuries of World Maps
Updated: Aug 8
I really should stop getting books like this. I’ve loved maps and globes since I was a kid, and, not that I have room, but to have one of those pull-down school roller maps … Aaaaaah. But I digress. A book like Peter Whitfield’s The Image of the World is bound to frustrate—not because the visuals are lacking or the writing dull, but because the format simply can’t be large enough to do justice to the maps. No, even in a coffee table-sized book such as this, the maps and their incredible detail and artistry are too small to get sufficiently lost in. Still, what’s here is superb eye candy sufficiently put into historical, cultural, and social context. If only these maps could be staged as an art exhibition so that they could be absorbed in all their grandeur.
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