The Brussels Map Circle

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London, UK
The exhibition presents a selection of the maps drawn by Ursula K. Le Guin for her books. Many of this maps have never been exhibited before. Le Guin’s maps offer journeys of consciousness beyond conventional cartography, from the archipelagos of Earthsea to the talismanic maps of Always Coming Home.
More information here.
Venue: AA Gallery, 36 Bedford Square, WC1B 3ES


Stanford (California), USA

Organisation: Mitchell Earth Sciences, Branner Earth Sciences Library & Map Collections

This exhibit explores how the British, Ottoman and American empires documented the human and non-human geography, resources, and landscapes of the Persian Gulf and Arabian Peninsula in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It features historical maps and artifacts from the collections of the Branner Earth Sciences Library and the David Rumsey Map Center alongside cartographic visualizations created by the OpenGulf research collective.
Featured materials include maps derived from a dataset collected from the British Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Arabia, and Oman created using QGIS, including the map of mentions of date palms displayed here. By placing these historical materials and contemporary analyses in conversation, we uncover a genealogy of geographical thinking alongside the power structures embedded in imperial and colonial record-keeping. This exhibit aims to illustrate and critically engage the breadth, depth, and nature of colonial and imperial knowledge production regarding the Persian Gulf and Arabian Peninsula, highlighting its varied expressions in texts, maps, and charts.
This exhibition is also available to view digitally.
Venue: Mitchell Earth Sciences, Branner Earth Sciences Library & Map Collections


Sint-Niklaas, Belgium
How do artists today depict heaven and earth at a time of fiercely shifting borders on our globe?
Today, the maps of the world are being firmly rearranged. Our globe is experiencing exciting times and getting a new layout. How do artists currently view heaven and earth? Using the scientific imagination of cartographer Mercator as a compass, artists critically and imaginatively explore themes such as: the vertical gaze or axis mundi, projections and corrections, measurements and yardsticks, riches and dangers in the subsoil, the crucial role of water and oceans, traces of the celestial globe and the art of getting lost in order to finally find one's own place. In addition to numerous artists, several scientists are also involved, which translates into an in-depth fringe programme.
All information about the exhibition may be found here.
Venue: MAP (Sint-Niklaas)


Marseille, France
From the Moon to the Evening Star, from the constellation of the Great Bear to the rings of Saturn, the celestial vault and the stars that inhabit it are the subject of immense fascination.
The exhibition ‘Reading the Sky’ focuses on the understanding of the night sky in the Mediterranean, as seen from Earth. From the first records of the ancient Mesopotamian sky to the popularity of contemporary astrology, via medieval Arab-Muslim astronomy and the Galilean revolution, societies in the Mediterranean basin have looked to the stars to situate themselves in the cosmos and organise themselves on Earth. Knowledge and beliefs have circulated between the shores, forming a common culture of the sky that still nourishes our contemporary approach to the stars.
More information here.


London, UK

Organisation: British Library

Step into the shadows at Secret Maps, a major new exhibition revealing the stories hidden in some of history’s most mysterious maps.
Maps have always been more than just tools for navigation – in the hand of governments, groups and individuals, maps create and control knowledge. In Secret Maps, we trace the levels of power, coercion and secrecy that lie behind maps from the 14th century to the present day, and uncover the invisible forces that draw and distort the world around us.
More information on the exhibition page.
Venue: British Library


Chicago, USA

Organisation: The Newberry Library

Analyzing the visual language of maps. Lines are the foundation of the visual language of maps. For centuries, mapmakers have experimented with the placement, density, and purpose of lines like these to make maps seem simple and objective. These lines are never as straightforward as they seem. This exhibition follows lines on maps to their extremes. By exploring how maps use lines to make the world legible, the exhibition will bring you through examples of mapmakers and artists who have created, bent, and broken these linear rules. By following these lines, you will find maps to be more complex and more motley than they ever imagined!
All information here.
Venue: The Newberry Library


Sint-Niklaas, Belgium

Organisation: MAP

‘Maps in books’ is a temporary exhibition in the MAP - Curiosum exhibition hall and acts as an ‘opening precursor’ to the new MAP - Mercator experience museum in Sint-Niklaas. From the 15th century, maps appeared in atlases and travelogues, as evidence of discoveries or as instruments of power and governance. Regional maps recorded land boundaries and property. Military maps determined strategies in battles.
All information on the exhibition here.
Venue: MAP (Sint-Niklaas)