We think of maps as relating parts of the world to each other to locate places and to help us find our way. Places and their relationships do not even have to be geographical -- think of imaginary or metaphorical maps.

Diana Cooper, a visiting artist and instructor in the art department, challenged her Drawing III class last semester to turn the expectation of guidance on its head and produce "Maps to Get Lost By," an exhibit now on display on the basement level of Olin Library through March 16.

The drawing class first visited the Map Collection in Olin Library and looked at a wide variety of maps and other cartographic objects. The students then responded with maps of their own.

Each student uses a different way to "get lost." One recurrent strategy is to extract from a spoken idiom a way one gets lost and then to represent that environment on the pseudo-map. Examples in the exhibit are "lost in sensual bliss," "lost in attention to detail," "emotionally lost" and "lost in memory."

Some of the maps use common cartographic conventions to engage the viewer's expectations -- and then to mislead viewers or force them to rethink the extent a map is possible in the environment the work is portraying. Some students reinterpret historical forms, such as the medieval mappa mundi and manorial maps.

Maps often exude a kind of immutability and infallibility. These thought-provoking works undercut cartographic arrogance and replace it with uncertainty, misdirection and ultimately an opportunity for re-examining the world.

For more information, contact Bob Kibbee at (607) 255-9566 or e-mail rk14@cornell.edu

Bob Kibbee is a map and GIS librarian with Cornell University Library.