Every Atlas Is Read From Somewhere

An atlas brings the world together, but our understanding of it always begins somewhere.

When I open an atlas, I first look for Iran. I cut through the atlas along Iran’s outline, then fix the pages together to form a single block.

Along the cut edge, maps that once appeared on separate pages are compressed into dense layers that resemble geological strata. The cut turns a fixed location on the map into a point of view that runs through the entire atlas.

The atlas stops behaving like a book and becomes an object. It can no longer be read page by page. What was once a sequence becomes depth.