Touring through an open house

The William C. Wonders map collection’s desire paths and colonial legacies.

Abstract

In March 2020, the University of Alberta William C. Wonders map collection sheltered in place as a global pandemic unfolded. It would be a year before staff could return in full, creating a disconnect from the physical space. During this absence, map staff began planning in-person map collection tours that would draw upon Henri Lefebvre’s production of space in order to recalibrate the collection as evidence of extractive dispossession, rhumb the maps as anthropogenic fragments, and situate their containers in deep time.