This volume ventures into terrain where even the most sophisticated map fails to lead--through the mapmaker s bias. Denis Wood shows how maps are not impartial reference objects but rather instruments of communication persuasion and power. Like paintings they express a point of view. By connecting us to a reality that could not exist in the absence of maps--a world of property lines and voting rights taxation districts and enterprise zones--they embody and project the interests of their creators. Sampling the scope of maps available today illustrations include Peter Gould s AIDS map Tom Van Sant s map of the earth U.S. Geological Survey maps and a child s drawing of the world. THE POWER OF MAPS was published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt Museum the Smithsonian Institution s National Museum of Design.