GPS can tell you how to get just about anywhere on the face of the Earth. It鈥檚 no good, however, beyond the borders of reality. For that kind of journey, a map will do a better job of guiding the way.
The Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education makes that case with its latest exhibition, 鈥淣orth of Nowhere, West of the Moon: Myth, Fiction, and Fantasy in Maps.鈥 Rather than mapping a real place, most items on display depict places that can only be visited through the viewer鈥檚 imagination.
鈥淓specially as we鈥檙e entering the third year of the pandemic, we designed this intentionally as an escape,鈥 said Libby Bischof. 鈥淲e crafted this gallery experience to give people a minute from their life to step away into these other worlds. And I hope that people will take advantage of that opportunity and just give themselves kind of a mental break from everything that鈥檚 going on around us even if it鈥檚 only temporary.鈥
Bischof is Executive Director of the Osher Map Library. She hatched the idea for the exhibition following the recent acquisition of Bernard Sleigh鈥檚 鈥淎n Anciente Mappe of Fairyland.鈥
For some do hold our Arthur cannot die,
But that he passes into Fairyland.
Sleigh was a muralist and, at six feet in length, the map reflects his talent for working on a large scale. His landscape combines elements of folktales, mythology, and literature spanning centuries. It imagines a world where Snow White might cross paths with Hercules or King Arthur. Created in 1918, the map offers a whimsical counterpoint to the brutality and cynicism of World War I.
Bischof wanted to spotlight Sleigh鈥檚 map by showing how it fit into a tradition of charting imaginary places. She looked inward at Osher鈥檚 collection of nearly half a million cartographic items. The library is especially well-known for its historic maps dating back to 1475. As the exhibition took shape in her mind, Bischof saw an opportunity to bring the library鈥檚 20th century holdings into the forefront.
鈥淎s someone who studied a lot of art history, I鈥檓 a photo historian, these maps to me are just beautiful,鈥 Bischof said. 鈥淚 think there鈥檚 just so much color, there鈥檚 so much design. I think aesthetically, they鈥檙e going to really appeal to a lot of people, too.鈥
She asked where he lived.
“Second to the right,” said Peter, “and then straight on till morning.”
“What a funny address!”
Exhibitions usually take a year or more to research and organize before the public gets to see them. Driven by the urgency of Bischof鈥檚 vision, 鈥淣orth of Nowhere鈥 came together in the relatively short span of two months.
The two earliest maps in the exhibition depict the most up-to-date understanding of world geography for the 16th and 17th centuries. In areas where knowledge was limited, the mapmakers filled the gaps with their assumptions about the waterways, and land masses that were surely waiting to be discovered. Monsters and mermaids were often shown to be standing guard over those unknown regions. Fantasy, we鈥檙e shown, was always part of the mapmakers鈥 trade.
Books like 鈥淧eter Pan鈥 by J.M. Barrie give mapmakers permission to let their imagination run wild far beyond the embellishments of those earlier maps. Several maps in the exhibition depict Never Never Land, replete with Captain Hook鈥檚 pirate cove and the underground hideaway of the Lost Boys. The different arrangements of those landmarks show how widely interpretations of the same source material can vary between mapmakers.
The whimsical, painterly renderings of Never Never Land contrast with the nearby maps of Middle Earth, which could easily be mistaken for actual historical documents. A familiarity with cartography is evident in the technical precision of the coastlines and mountain ranges. As a companion to 鈥淭he Lord of the Rings,鈥 the map strives to reach a level of authenticity in keeping with J.R.R. Tolkien鈥檚 words. He invented entire languages and genealogies in service to his goal of transporting readers into an alternate version of history.
鈥淚鈥檝e often lost myself in the worlds of a novel ever since I was very young,鈥 Bischof said. 鈥淩eading has always been a pretty distinct escape for me. And my appreciation of this particular show and some of the items within it really come from that.鈥
Writers like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle pose a different challenge for mapmakers. He imagined the real streets of London as a playground for his fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes. The line between reality and fantasy became so blurred that some readers believed Holmes really existed. A map in the Osher Library鈥檚 reading room indulges that belief by charting key locations from Holmes鈥 adventures across London as well as the rest of England.
“It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.”
The whole world and all of fiction receive that same treatment from 鈥淭he Atlas of Imagined Places: From Lilliput to Gotham City.鈥 Its writers spent years compiling a list of 5,000 fictional places and pinpointing their real-world locations. Their sources spanned novels, movies, television shows, pop music, video games, comic books and more. They filled 168-pages with maps that looked at once entirely familiar in shape but utterly fanciful in detail.
The atlas hit many of the same notes that Bischof was trying to achieve. As a companion to the exhibition, she arranged for the writers to explain their mapmaking process in a . Matt Brown, Rhys Davies and Mike Hall spoke from their homes in England via Zoom to an online audience on January 22.
鈥淲e had very serious rules which we go into in some depth in the introduction,鈥 Brown said, 鈥渁nd then we broke most of those rules when we found really interesting or fun examples that broke the rules in some way.鈥
One of the biggest rules that Brown and his co-authors followed was that only places with names could be included. They also required at least a basic hint of direction to make it mappable. Some places were easy to locate like the setting for the animated movie 鈥淭he Iron Giant鈥 which gave precise coordinates for Rockwell, Maine. That was one of the more lighthearted entries when compared to surrounding towns.
鈥淚t is in New England what we find what H.P. Lovecraft described as 鈥榯he true epicure of the terrible,鈥欌 said Davies. 鈥淎nd as can be seen from a glance at our map, New England is indeed the home of the horrible.鈥
Many of Maine鈥檚 entries like Jerusalem鈥檚 Lot, Derry and Castle Rock were dreamed up by horror novelist and Bangor resident Stephen King. The Maine coast is also home to Cabot Cove, as the setting for the TV series 鈥淢urder, She Wrote.鈥 From there, Whipstaff Manor is just a short drive away. It鈥檚 haunted by Casper, the Friendly Ghost, whose adventures span movies, cartoon shorts, and comic books.
鈥淲ho are you?鈥 asked the Scarecrow when he had stretched himself and yawned. 鈥淎nd where are you going?鈥
鈥淢y name is Dorothy,鈥 said the girl, 鈥渁nd I am going to the Emerald City, to ask the Great Oz to send me back to Kansas.鈥
Like the atlas, the exhibition took an all-inclusive approach to its sources. The gallery walls include maps inspired by the Zelda video game series, the Disneyland amusement park, and the Candy Land board game.
When a subject spans multiple media, mapmakers are faced with a choice. They can select a single version as the basis for their map or try to reconcile between the different interpretations. Certain details in the famous 鈥淭he Wizard of Oz鈥 movie from 1939 differ greatly from the book upon which it was based. Those kinds of discrepancies are multiplying as superhero movies continue to proliferate. A map of Wakanda that was drawn for a comic book in 1973 looks much different from the way it appeared in the 2018 movie 鈥淏lack Panther.鈥
The kids may come for the superheroes, but the exhibition tries to build off that interest by appealing to their innate sense of adventure and creativity. The Osher Library will host two workshops on March 19 and 26 to give kids tips on making their own fantasy maps. Other kids are credited as artists in the exhibition. A glass case in the center of the gallery features submissions to the library鈥檚 annual mapmaking contest which is open to Maine students in Grades 4-6.
鈥淲e find that kids are really good at it,鈥 Bischof said. 鈥淲e hope that the kids who come and see this exhibition are really inspired by what they see to create their own maps.鈥
鈥淲hy do you sit out here all alone?鈥 said Alice, not wishing to begin an argument.
“Why, because there鈥檚 nobody with me!鈥 cried Humpty Dumpty.
The exhibition opened on January 20 and runs through May 30. Admission is free, but visitors must contact the library to book a time for their tour. The library is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.