Ross: Amazon.com: The book is beautifully produced on excellent stock, binding and gorgeous reproductions; the artists use maps as a "medium for expressing their observations, passions and anxieties about the contemporary world." There are 360 maps made from all sorts of media, traditional painting, modified globes, tree branches, butterfly wings, spider webs and more. Unusual examples include: Kim Baranowski's map of alien-abduction sites, which is part of the "Mappa Mundi" series: "information that would give schoolchildren nightmares; areas of the world not yet hit by asteroids, potential U.S. nuclear targets ... or "show-and-tell for the paranoid." Vik Muniz created a world map using junk from garbage dumps, assembled with the help of youngsters from the shantytowns of Rio de Janeiro. Corriette Schoenaerts, 'Europe,' 2005, is a construction of countries and continents made out of clothing. In 2002, China's Long March Project embarked upon a `Walking Visual Display' along the route of the 1934-1936 historic 6000-mile Long March, and Beijing-based artist Qin kept tracked the group's route in a tattooed map on his back. Three years later, Qin continued the trek where the original marchers had left off, accompanied by a camera crew and a tattoo artist, who continually updated the map on Qin's back. Harmon's favorite is from the Bambanani women's group, a South African group of HIV-positive women who created body maps tracking battles with the virus: "Today I feel good I am happy. I am free ... I've disappointed the devil" wrote one artist on her map.. Harmon writes: "I've given a lot of thought to why people respond to maps. It perhaps comes down to us locating ourselves in an inconceivably vast universe on one hand, and in our own complicated lives as well." This lovely and challenging collection gave me a great deal to think about, not only as a map lover, but as someone who enjoys studying art in finely produced book. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.