Using the twenty printed maps of a facsimile edition of Turgot’s 1739 Plan de Paris as the ground for both wall and album variations. The map shows what are now the inner twelve arrondissements in both plan and axonometric views—and unlike typical maps it reveals how the city looked both from above and from the street. In this curious way it anticipates the shifting points of view now offered by online maps. On this beautiful engraved map I make painted interventions and additions based on my history of visiting the city since 1975 highlighting places stayed, locations, ideas and images of significance, evoking history and inhabitants, and intricately patterned and polished. My Plan de Paris is an imagined journeying to the city from my studio as a visual fantasia.
