Artist and cartographer Adam Dant surveys London’s past, present and future from his studio in the East End. Beautiful, witty and subversive, his astonishing maps offer a compelling view of history, lore, language and life in the capital and beyond.
Traversed by a plethora of colourful characters including William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Mary Wollstonecraft and Barbara Windsor, Adam Dant’s maps extend from the shipwrecks on the bed of the Thames to the stars in the sky over Soho. Along the way, he captures all the rich traditions in the capital, from brawls and buried treasure to gin and gentlemen’s clubs.
Accompanying text by the artist gives the background to each of the handsome cartographic artworks, revealing his inspirations and artistic process and outlining his cultural allusions. Reproduced in large format, the maps invite the reader to study all the astonishing and often hilarious details within, offering hours of fascination for the curious.
Published in conjunction with the Spitalfields Life blog, Maps of London & Beyond includes an extensive interview with Adam Dant by the blog’s founder The Gentle Author.
Adam Dant studied at the Royal College of Art, London, and the MS University Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda, India. He creates elaborate narrative drawings that examine and depict public contemporary life, space, mythologies and histories. Extensively researched and wittily perceptive, these works of art draw on a deep well of historical and visual sources. Adam Dant was the official election artist in 2015.
The Gentle Author writes daily about the culture of east London for the Spitalfields Life blog, covering a variety of topics, from criminals and street life to culinary delights.
Interested in learning more about Newham Bookshop and some of the people connected with it? We have four lessons for classroom or family use developed from On the Record’s oral history project centered around Newham Bookshop, Writing and Reading Newham. Click here for full details.
We are proud that Newham Bookshop is LoveReading’s Bookshop of the Month. The article features a Q&A with Vivian Archer, which you can read here.