Ursula Ok Le Guin, the distinguished writer recognized for her science fiction and fantasy novels, particularly A Wizard of Earthsea and The Left Hand of Darkness, had a really specific inventive course of as she started writing a brand new story. The American inventive would kick-start her journey by drawing a map. These imaginative cartographs are recognized to seize the essence of her fantasy worlds and provides life to her novels.
‘The Rivers That Run into the Inland Sea’, printed in All the time Coming Residence, 1985
(Picture credit score: Courtesy Ursula Ok Le Guin Basis)
Enter the world of Ursula Ok Le Guin
‘The Phrase for World: The Maps of Ursula Ok Le Guin’ is a brand new exhibition offered by The Architectural Affiliation (AA) Faculty of Structure in London, which charts the writer’s drawings of those fictional worlds. Many of those authentic artworks and drawings have by no means been seen earlier than, having been saved in a private archive. Now, guests can discover them and mentally journey by the archipelagos of Earthsea to the talismanic maps of All the time Coming Residence.
‘How to attract a dragon’. Ink on paper
(Picture credit score: Courtesy College of Oregon Libraries and Ursula Ok Le Guin Basis.)
Le Guin’s works don’t simply push the boundaries of how we create maps, however prolong past recognized terrain and the way a map is learn and made, highlighting the author’s personal strategy to narrative and place.
‘Le Guin’s maps floor and provides life to the worlds in her novels, in addition to body the philosophical questions they increase,’ explains Ingrid Schroder, director of the AA. ‘They assist reveal her means of considering by drawing, appearing as blueprints for potential and actual landscapes, and for the societies that inhabit them. They’re without delay an act of world-building, a type of deep engagement with land and panorama, and a mirrored image on our engagement with the planet.’
“Talismanic map of the Valley, with place names”, 1985. Ink on paper
(Picture credit score: Courtesy Ursula Ok Le Guin Basis.)
The exhibition additionally coincides with the discharge of The Phrase for World, a ebook edited by writer So Mayer and author Sarah Shin, and co-published by Spiral Home (a brand new imprint of Silver Press) and AA Publications. This publication is a celebration of Le Guin and her work, bringing collectively poems, tales, interviews, recipes and essays by contributors from a wide range of views, to investigate into the connection between worlds and the creativeness.
‘Orsinia, the Ten Provinces’, unpublished, for Malafrena, 1979, Ink and typewriter textual content on tracing paper,
(Picture credit score: Courtesy Ursula Ok Le Guin Basis)
Each the exhibition and ebook ‘The Phrase for World’ will launch collectively on the AA in London’s Bedford Sq. on Friday 10 October 2025
Supply: Wallpaper
