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

Kitty Harmon
Princeton Architectural Press, 2004
Trade paperback, 192 pages with 155 maps and 6 essays
ISBN 1-56898-430-8
$19.95

You Are Here is a wide-ranging collection of inventive maps designed for voyages of the imagination. Visit an ideal country estate from a dog's perspective, take a trip down the road to success, or cross into lands imagined by an inmate of a mental institution. The maps' creators offer an abundance of whimsical explorations as they venture beyond the boundaries of geography and convention.

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Want to see more maps like the ones included in You Are Here? Try these links:

How to read a map:
http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/epo/mapexhib/map.html

Set from the film Dogville:
http://film.spettacolo.virgilio.it/cinema/dvd.php?dvd=957

Fool’s world map
http://www.zen-style.com/world/

NEU-YORK: how Manhattan might have looked had the Nazis conquered it in World War II:
http://www.megophone.com/neuyork.html

The Kingdom of France as a ship
http://memory.loc.gov/.

An interactive environment for exploring place, based on the photos people take:
www.mappr.com

Urban tablets: ceramic city maps:
http://www.mindspring.com/~intherealm/tablets.html

Beautiful paintings:
http://chaselangford.com/PM1/pm1.htm

Australian Aboriginal dream map
http://www.users.bigpond.com/Mangkaja_Arts/webpage/canvassing.html#five

Children's maps
http://www.papaink.org/gallery/home/picture/display/5868.html

Painkiller map
http://www.kb.nl/persons/jan-smits/cartifact/imaginary03.html

Map of Watership Down
http://www.helsinki.fi/~peuha/english/watership/watership-map-1.shtml

Navajo sand paintings
http://www.penfieldgallery.com/sand.html

Maps of the Internet
http://research.lumeta.com/ches/map/gallery/index.html

Map of Margaritaville on a t-shirt
http://margaritavillestore.com/browse.cfm/4,84.html

New Yorkistan
http://www.photonewyork.com/nm46980.html

Create your own maps
http://www.worldofexperience.com/CreateAndPrint/create_select.asp
http://www.digiwis.com/custom.htm

View sample spreads from You Are Here

“Into this seemingly lighthearted look into people's love affairs with maps and mapmaking, Harmon packs some serious intellectual concepts about the human impulse to locate itself in the cosmos; the intricate and thoughtful works she presents do indeed prove her point that map-making is as diverse and extraordinary a human act as any other.”
— Publishers Weekly (included in "Best Books 2003")

“[There are] many books that can satisfy our desire for the visual thrills of exotic armchair travel. Before setting out, you might want to consult You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination, edited by Katharine Harmon—a charming companion for those who prefer to begin their voyages by sitting back and closing their eyes.”
— Washington Post

“Take a journey into the human psyche with You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination. The book points out 155 works of unconventional cartography. The mapmakers—artists, molecular biologists, even a 3-year-old—use contour lines, baselines, satellite imagery, seismic tomography, and other tropes of the trade to chart personal boundaries, the path to hell, British air routes, and an obsessive's worldview. You'll get lost in them before you know it.”
— Wired

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